Forbidden Designs
by Brax The Great
Summary: The power of Adam. The Power of Lilith. Two halves that if reunited would bring about the end of the world as we know it. Very true, but in a way that no one saw coming. Read & Review please! reviews will inspire me to get chapters out faster!
1. Two Halves

**Disclaimer: ****Neon Genesis Evangelion is the property of Studio Gainax and director Hideki Anno. I own nothing except original concepts and characters that will be presented herein.**

**Author's Notes: ****I've tried twice to develop a story for NGE, but each one came out a flop. THIS one is my third (or fourth, I'm not sure anymore) attempt, so here's hoping.**

_Gehrin American Branch, Nevada, 2006, 200 metres below the surface…_

Dr. Emil Gannon, a silver-haired Scottish-born fellow with eyes as green as the Emerald Isle and a face that would make one think of Santa Claus- minus the beard- which his research team affectionately called "Old Man", slowly walked down the halls of the classified "Special Projects Division" section of the Gehrin American branch headquarters. He wished for his youth back, or even just a new pair of legs, ones that weren't wracked with arthritis, or in the case of his left leg, a rusted piece of cybernetic junk that squeaked more than a rusty door hinge. He was sometimes forced to limp along like someone who had sprained his ankle because the stupid prosthetic jammed up and stopped working outright. What he wouldn't give for both his legs to be whole and working like when he was a young man. Dr. Gannon had often fantasized about chucking the defective piece of shit out the nearest available high window. He'd also love it if a certain someone was right below said window.

'_Why is it that when I'm in the middle of a happy thought, and I mean a really happy thought, that that sour bitch keeps riding my ass', _Dr. Gannon thought to himself with a sneer as he tried to hurry up. Dr. Amanda Krane, the Special Projects Division Director, was badgering him constantly about his apparent lack of progress with his energy stimulant project. Lack of progress? Wrong! He was taking as long as he was taking because he didn't want anyone to wind up in a body bag, for God sake! Dr. Gannon had tried on several occasions to explain the dangers of rushing the project to Dr. Krane, but she wouldn't hear of it, and even began accusing him of sabotaging the project just to milk more funding from the Instrumentality Committee. Outrageous!

He had just come from yet another yelling match with Krane, and unbelievably, after they both went before the committee members to hash out the whole mess, the committee had decided enough was enough. They could honestly understand both sides of the argument, they said. One side emphasized wanting to do it right without losing personnel or materials in the process, while the other side voted for speed and efficiency without 'wasting' time and funding for 'unnecessary' equipment upgrades and safety precautions. The Committee had decided on a compromise, and what a compromise it was; Dr. Krane would be overseeing one of his energy stimulant experiments, but he would continue as project leader, but if Dr. Krane had some 'useful' tips for speeding things up, Dr. Gannon was to make use of her suggestions. In other words, "this is still your experiment, but she's the one _really _running the show".

Great.

Wonderful.

A disaster waiting to happen. Dr. Gannon had tried repeatedly to make the Committee see reason, but they were adamant about their decision, but there was one tiny sliver of silver lining. Chairman Keel himself had stated, in no uncertain terms, "If Dr. Krane's suggestions cause more problems than they solve, you will be free to handle your experiments on _your _timetable, and _your _way, no further interference will be permitted". The look on Krane's face when Keel said those beautiful words were almost enough to make him forget about his bum leg and Krane's presence during this next test of his energy stimulant.

Dr. Gannon was taking his sweet time because of the very nature of what they were testing, and _what_ it was being tested on. Three years ago, he had begun developing a radical pharmaceutical that could, theoretically, increase the electro-chemical output of living cellular matter. A smaller smattering of cells of any kind would be able to generate huge amounts of chemical energy, which could potentially be used as a clean and safe source of renewable power. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical company he had worked for, while honestly supporting his work, had gone under due to charges of corruption and embezzlement by the board of directors. He had managed, through careful planning, and being almost paranoid about his work, to set up a home-based lab where he continued to work. Thank God he patented his energy stimulant research, or he would have lost it all when the company went bankrupt. He did lose the funding though, and almost lost his house and all of his possessions too, if not for Lorenz Keel. The mysterious old cyborg offered him not only all the funding he could ever need or ask for, but also the chance to use his work to help people in ways he could never had imagined…at least until he saw a video recording of a powerful glowing giant turning all of Antarctica to slush.

He signed on the dotted line so fast, he thought he had sprained his wrist. He swore right there that not only would he be successful, but Dr. Gannon had sworn he would do all in his power to come up with a way to beat the other aliens that were coming. He had developed in tandem with the energy stimulant, a device that could generate an energy field that hampered living cells ability to generate electro-chemical energy, the central piece of equipment in all of his energy stimulant experiments. It boiled down to seeing just how much energy living cells could generate when augmented with his stimulant, despite having the dampening field cranked up. He wasn't testing his stimulant on_ human_ cells, though.

He was testing his stimulant on cell samples from the creature that destroyed Antarctica, which caused the deaths of three and a half billion people.

Dr. Gannon had been studying this remarkable entity's cellular structure for almost three years, ever since he had been rather easily convinced to sign on to this project. He discovered that this beings cells could actively absorb and metabolise ambient, radiant, and any other kind of energy, whether it was ambient heat or varying forms of electro-magnetic energy; electrical appliances would suddenly stop working or the lighting would flicker and die.

Dr. Gannon had a fair amount of experience with high-energy physics, achieving a double doctorate from MIT for that subject, as well as cellular biology before becoming the worlds first high-energy _biologist_, so his work was very helpful, even vital for this project. He had actually deduced how the cells could actively gather and absorb various forms of energy, and he even went one step further: he had discovered a way to interfere with this process, to block it outright. If this being, and the others of its kind that would soon be coming, were similar enough in that they acquired power the same way, he could use his research to create specialized hardware that could theoretically greatly weaken these beings, making them easier to combat.

He had taken so long in perfecting the work because he kept reworking the energy stimulant formula, always trying to push for greater energy output from the cell samples he worked with so he and his team would have a reasonably accurate baseline with which to establish the operating parameters for the energy dampening equipment. He had gone through several versions, finally arriving on his ninth and by far most powerful version to date. An even greater concern was safety; he hadn't been working in high-energy physics for fifty years, ever since he was nineteen, and not been paying attention to all those colourful warning labels on equipment and research materials. Now his work was being co-opted by that opportunistic little tart Amanda Krane.

As Dr. Gannon boiled at he prospect of Krane damaging his work and getting people hurt by being reckless, he suddenly felt like his lungs were being squeezed by a giant vice. He stumbled into the wall, unable to get a breath into his lungs. He braced himself against the wall and he started to violently cough and wretch. He frantically dug around in his lab coat pocket for something, a dribble of blood running down his chin. His digging was momentarily halted when he coughed up a huge splattering of blood on the wall. He finally found what he was looking for, the injection gun with his medication, but he couldn't keep a grip on it. He fumbled with the gun as it fell from his hands.

'_Damn it all! Not now!' _Dr. Gannon gasped in pain, sure he was a dead man walking, when a fellow researcher, a Dr. Joseph Carmine rushed up behind him and caught injection gun before it hit the floor. He jammed the gun against Dr. Gannon's neck and pulled the trigger, injecting the fast-acting medication right into the carotid artery. As the medication worked its magic, the pain seemed to fly away, and Dr. Gannon drew in a huge but shaky breath. He pushed off from the wall and took out a tissue from his pocket to clean his mouth off.

"Thanks, Joe. Thought Ol' Saint Peter was gonna finally get to grill me there for a second", Emil said as he shook his respected colleagues hand in thanks. He had met Dr. Carmine when he first started working for Gehrin. He had arrived at the American branch, passing through gate security and stood in the main foyer, hoping to get started right away. He had been introduced to Dr. Krane first thing. While she was an attractive young lady, she was as appealing emotionally as a frozen fish, with a constantly dour and condescending attitude. She had started to make some wicked comment about Gannon himself right out of the blue when he heard somebody say, "Back off, Amanda. Chairman Keel got this guys back", which drew their attention to a fifty-something man in biker clothes that looked like he had just come from a ride. He was resting with his back against the wall, a cheap cigar between his teeth, leather chaps over worn denim jeans, steel toed boots, and well-worn leather jacket and bandana to complete the picture.

Krane glared at the newcomer, but quickly slinked away as she didn't want to entice the man considered the US Armies newest golden boy. Dr. Carmine glared right back the retreating women, icy blue eyes sharp as knives from beneath salt and pepper eye-brows. When he stood straight, he was well over six-foot, a back unbent by the passage of time, and as well built as a light-weight prize fighter. He worked his shoulders as he walked toward Dr. Gannon, a huge smile spreading across his face as he jokingly said, "Welcome to Hell".

Dr. Carmine's work in physiology enhancement had caught his eye. Dr. Carmine, in turn, had been equally fascinated by Gannon's energy stimulant and energy dampening projects. They quickly realized that aspects of each others work could benefit their projects. Dr. Krane kept harping about them sticking to their own projects, but the two scientists ignored her passionately. Now they like two halves to a single coin, one could not be whole without the other.

As Gannon steadied himself, Carmine was the proverbial shoulder to lean on. He stood perfectly still as his friend steadied himself, not saying a word. What could you say, when your friend was as stubborn as a mule about his problems, whether it be trying to deal with them himself, or trying to deal with them on his own. Lung cancer was a bitch, and one that needed to be slapped down hard, in Carmine's opinion, but if he ever voiced that opinion in those particular words, Gannon would deck him for 'such inelegant language'. He preferred that his problems remained his problems, but if somebody just happened to be in the right place at the right time, who was he to complain.

"Well, Joe, thanks for being the rock on which I stand, but if I don't get to my dampener test, Krane'll shut me out of my own project". Gannon was once again limping toward his lab, but now he had Carmine tagging onto his heels. As the taller man slowly trotted along, Gannon looked over at his friend.

"Yes?" He asked. Carmine smiled , trotted in front of his friend and dropped to one to one knee. "Need a lift?" His older friend looked at the taller man like he on drugs, but decided what the hell. Dr. Gannon climbed onto his friends back and the two made their way toward Dr. Gannon's lab, Dr. Carmine giving his ailing friend a piggy-back the rest of the way, completely unconcerned about what any on-lookers might say.

Dr. Krane was not in a good mood. That idiot old fossil, Gannon, was late. She didn't care if he had the backing of the Council, he was a decrepit old fool who should just retire to some old folks home and die. Leave the _real _science to the younger generation. Though she had to admit, that Gannon's energy dampening system not a complete waste of time and resources, but the energy stimulant was just ridiculous. While she could see actual uses of the energy dampening gear in the field, the energy stimulant could only increase cellular energy production; what good would that do? It wouldn't necessarily give and Evangelion unit an advantage, maybe just a little better performance, but without the power cables and battery pack, an Evangelion would still be helpless, so what if its normal output was amplified by some wonder drug. It would wear off anyway, so where's the benefit?

Krane was about to give voice to her displeasure when the door to the lab opened and…well, she really wasn't sure if she should even try to describe what just jogged through the lab door. Dr. Gannon was riding on Dr. Carmine's back like a little kid. The old man had finally flipped his lid. That was the only thing she could think of. Well, that and he was making a total fool of himself

'And right in front of Chairmen Keel', she thought, shifting her gaze to the wizened cyborg as he raised a snow-white brow at Gannon and Carmine's antics. He actually looked amused instead of upset. At least _He's _having a good time, she thought. Both the Doctors caught sight of Keel, did a double take, and froze like statues. Dr. Gannon slide off his colleagues back and straightened himself out, cleared his throat, and addressed the chairman directly.

"Chairman Keel, what a surprise! I hadn't thought you'd be in attendance, due to your very busy schedule" Gannon became worried about how Chairman Keel would interpret the results of his experiment today, considering what he just saw. The results could be spectacular, but if Keel thought for one second that he wasn't taking things seriously, Gannon would be ejected from his own project, which that stick-up-her-ass Krane would love. He needn't have worried.

"Thank you for the warm welcome Dr. Gannon. And don't worry about your little show; I understand how prosthetic limbs can stab a person in the back at the most inopportune times", Keel responded, a small portion of cheer in his voice. He tapped his own prosthetic leg with his right fist, holding onto his decorative cane with his left. A distinct metallic ring could be heard as he tapped his leg. He raised his visor covered eyes to the two embarrassed doctors and chuckled as he said, "No need to apologize, again. Its good to know that even today, scientists, even rivals", he glared at Krane, "can be helpful to each other, in what ever way they can be".

Krane took a nervous step back. Not only because of Keel's glare, but because the time for the experiment was upon them. She didn't want to be too close when the 'accident' occurred. During the night before, she had used her security clearance as the Special Projects Division Director and gained access to Dr. Carmine's lab and obtained a small vial of his most up-to-date version of his combat enhancer. She then went to Dr. Gannon's lab and found an open canister of his energy stimulant The eerie green glow of the stimulant, for some reason or another, always unnerved Krane. Something that glowed shouldn't be injected into any living things veins, never mind a person and especially not an Evangelion unit!

The canister could hold up to two and a half litres of stimulant but had been filled to about one and a half litres. She took the vial of combat enhancer out of her coat pocket, but before dropping the vial in, she placed a tiny micro-chip on the vial. When she carefully released the vial into the stimulant, it sank to the bottom of the canister. The vial was made of a bio-degradable silicon and would break down over several days. Before she capped off the canister she put another bio-degradable vial in, this one filled with a glossy orange liquid. She knew that she'd be a dead woman if anyone found out she had even this small amount. To think, there was a being that rivalled the First Angel! This 'Lilith' as it was code-named had been discovered by an Archaeological tem led by the Chairman himself fifty years ago. She now rested at the bottom of Terminal Dogma in Nerv-1 in Japan. What no one knew, at least at the moment, was that a tissue sample had been taken from Lilith, about the size of a persons index finger, along with a small amount of the creatures blood. That same sample of blood and tissue was in the second vial that Amanda Krane had taken out of her lab coat pocket.

She smiled at thought of what would happen. When the Energy Dampener test begins, the resulting combination of the First and Second Angel's DNA, the energy stimulant, and even the combat enhancer, would devastate the lab, and she'd be well out of the way. She'd discreetly excuse herself when the test was begun, and make for the nearest emergency exit. She would trigger the small computer chip attached to the vial of enhancer, which would generate a sub-sonic signal that, while not affecting the sample canister in the slightest, the two vials hidden in the canister would dissolve into powder, releasing their contents to mix with the energy stimulant.

When those ingredients reacted to each other, the lab and everybody in it, including those annoying pricks Gannon and Carmine, and even Chairman Keel, would simply cease to exist. There would be no evidence of her involvement with the approaching disaster, and she'd be free to run things here as SHE saw fit. She looked upon the sample canister in question. Dr. Gannon had just locked it into pump that would inject that glorious cocktail into the test chamber. The chamber was designed with the ability to dampen energy output from energized angel cells to the point of killing them outright. That particular result would most certainly not be occurring.

"Okay folks, this is test number eight of the series five energy dampener. Before preceding, we will enable the emergency safety systems that were implemented for the purposes of this experiment. Should the cells become too energized, we can actively drain the energy from the cells into bleeding-edge capacitor cells designed for just such an occasion. The capacitor cells, by the way, were designed to store huge amounts of energy using something called quantum compression", Gannon announced to the lab technicians stationed at various monitors around the lab as he began keying in commands at his work station situated in front of a huge heavy titanium cylindrical containment chamber centered in the lab that stretched from floor to ceiling, inside of which was the primary dome-like test chamber that was set into the center of the laboratories floor.

'_Like those stupid things will work!' _Krane mentally sneered as she watched Gannon begin prepping the sample pump. The sample pump was attached to the end of a multi-jointed mechanical arm which would connect the pump to the test chamber and deliver a precise pre-measured amount of the sample. The robotic arm was mounted on a swinging servo-motor that allowed the robotic arm to swing out of the containment chamber for servicing and prep-work for other experiments. When the arm was ready, it swung back into the containment chamber with an electrical whir, a heavy panel dropping down and sinking into the frame, locking into place with a heavy clanking of multiple heavy physical locks and the harsh electrical shriek of the electromagnetic locks kicking in..

Krane slipped her hand into her pocket and triggered the sonic chips that would break down the combat enhancer and Lilith DNA vials, mixing them with the energy stimulant. It would be only a matter of minutes after the chips were triggered that the self-destructive brew would go from a gentle simmer to a catastrophic boil-over. Soon, she'd be the one in charge, and Chairman Keel's death would be chalked up to a massive lab accident. She noticed a glow coming from the transparent window in the side of the sample canister, and also noticed that Gannon hadn't noticed.

'_Perfect'. _

The experiment began as all the others had; Gannon had primed the energy dampening system for use and added the Angel DNA sample. He activated his dampening gear, but on a setting so low, the effects on the DNA would be negligible. He then opened the main valves for the sample container and prepped to administer a small sample to the DNA in the test chamber.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, here we go", she heard Gannon say as he injected her cocktail-invigorated sample into the test chamber. The Angel cells were visible on a monitor connected to a high-resolution electron microscope which displayed false color-images. They seemed to move away from the small amount of glowing liquid that was deposited into the center of the testing chamber as though they were wary of it. Krane was beginning to wonder if the good doctors vaunted energy stimulant was actually working and the Lilith tissue sample was still viable.

She quickly got her answer.

Dr. Gannon had noticed a rather high cellular energy output, high even for the version of his energy stimulant he was using on the Angel cells. He began to turn up the intensity of the dampening field, but found it was having no effect whatsoever, which frankly shouldn't be possible. The data being collected by the sensors within the test chamber was being displayed on monitors throughout the lab, and it began to change VERY quickly. Cellular activity was going right off the charts, and the sheer amount of cellular energy was well approaching absurd-and even dangerous-levels.

"What in the _hell_ is goin' on here?" Dr. Gannon exclaimed. He tried turning up the intensity of the dampener again, but this time he wasn't taking any chances and maxed it out. He should have seen a dramatic decrease in cellular energy output, but instead he saw even more output than a moment ago, as well as other cellular activity that simply wasn't making sense. He noticed Chairman Keel studying the data on one of the monitors and his face went three shades paler than they normally were.

"Dr. Carmine, your opinion, if you would be so kind!" Carmine jogged over to Keel's side to get a look at the data, and he also blanched, as well as choked out a gasp. He said, "Emil, we have foreign cellular matter in the test chamber! The DNA sequencer detected them just after you added the sample! If I'm reading this right, and I hope to God I'm wrong, the foreign cells look like they came from another Angel! And…_what the fuck?_ My combat enhancer is mixed in there too!"

"Activate the energy induction system now! Hopefully, we can siphon off enough power to stabilize this mess!" Gannon yelled. He looked back to the monitors, and couldn't believe what he was seeing. The energy the two distinct cells sample were generating as they interacted was visible as a glowing, writhing mist that was swirling around inside the test chamber as though it were a living thing. The data on the monitors were showing rapidly changing patterns and frequencies, and even fundamental changes that were occurring with the cellular matter. The two distinct cell samples were actually combining into one new and distinct sample, and what made this observation seem even more insane, was that the new cells were undergoing real-time genetic mutation; a further shocking fact was that, upon further examination, the new cells were actually _assimilating _Dr. Carmine's combat enhancer, a combination of nano-machines and chemically-encoded computer software right into their own structures!

He knew that this was going to get worse, but maybe the energy induction system could pull enough energy out of the cells to at least buy some time before this thing blew sky-high. He looked over to Chairman Keel, about to ask him to help, but saw a resigned look on his face, unhidden by his visor, and he thought he heard Keel say, "Third Impact already? Damn, I'm not ready".

Gannon had no idea what he meant by that, but having survived _Second Impact_, he was in no hurry to try his luck with a third. He heard a loud electrical whining and saw that the induction grid was active, signified by brightly glowing piping along most of the exterior of the test chamber. He was very glad to know that there were a hundred of those high energy capacitors right beneath the lab. They would each absorb a portion of the turbulent energy that was building in the test chamber. Gannon quickly keyed in the final commands and the energy screamed through the bulky power conduits that connect them to the test chambers energy induction equipment. He really had no idea how much the power cells could hold, but he was going to find out now, wasn't he?

"Emil! The damn cells are already beginning to max out the new capacitors! But get this: the energy the damn cells are giving off is like nothing I've ever seen; and it keeps changing!" Chairman Keel seemed to stand a little straighter at that proclamation, and walked as quickly as he could over to the work station that Dr. Carmine had appropriated. He looked at the data on the screen and instantly realized something he once thought as impossible was happening right before his eyes. Even though the energy output of the fusing cells was still increasing, and quite rapidly, the transformation of the cellular structure was actually slowing to a crawl. In fact, on closer inspection, Keel discovered something he thought simply couldn't happen: The two separate Angel cell samples had combined into a singular and unique sample. The cells were born of both Adam and Lilith, but was completely new and seemed completely stand alone. The structure of the cells was now longer in flux, but as solid as bedrock. The cells, while still generating more and more energy, had finished combining and had even gone one step further, and had successfully incorporated the combat enhancer into their organelle structures and the energy stimulant had become integrated into the protein structure.

'_The cells can actually produce a variant of the stimulant as part of their own chemical structure! This is insane! Instead of a miniature Third Impact, this fusion has created something so completely new_, _it has heretofore never before been known to man. The energy they are radiating is remarkable. I'm amazed the sensor and scanner equipment is still working instead of being reduced to worthless slag; The equipment is even now analysing the energy, and the results are staggering', _Keel thought to himself.

He began typing away, beginning several simulations that would possibly answer his questions as to any potent uses of the energy. One simulation was quick to finish, showing that this energy was completely harmless to non-organic substances, and even had the truly bizarre quality of actually augmenting the functioning of electronic devices without damaging them. All of the high-energy diagnostic equipment in the lab, for instance, was being given a tremendous power boost by the energy it was analysing! Keel began to feel as giddy as a child in a candy store, something he hadn't felt in many, many years. He also noticed that the light level in the lab was getting substantially brighter, and it was getting brighter very quickly.

He looked over to the testing chamber and noticed that that very same energy which had captured everyone's attention was now streaming out of cracks in the test chamber. Keel's eyebrows reached the top of his head as he took several tentative steps backward, quite disturbed that the heavy titanium containment chamber was being burned through like plasma through tissue paper. Discretion would seem to be the better part of valour, Keel reasoned, but just as he turned to make dash for the door, a large crack split the test chamber almost from floor to ceiling, the blazing white-blue energy striking Keel square in the back.

Keel suddenly felt such complete agony, he lost the ability to rationalize the pain to something he had experienced in the past, and simply screamed. It was like burning alive from the inside out and the outside-in, like being torn apart and pulled in a multitude of directions, being crushed and cramping, twisted and squeezed, breaking and tearing, all seamlessly blended into perfect symphony of pain. Strangely, he also felt himself weightless, as though floating above the floor.

This was scant comfort to Keel as he noticed the casing on his right prosthetic arm begin to glow, and what amazed him even more, the glow coalesced into the hexagonal patterns of an AT-Field. As the light intensified, his arm seemed to begin to become immaterial and even begin to disintegrate right before his very eyes, so to speak. What was even more disturbing than his cybernetics beginning to be broken down by a mysterious AT-Field, was that the missing flesh his cybernetics had been used to replace was growing back, and very quickly, he managed to note, the AT-Field acting as a protecting chrysalis for the new flesh. Doctors Gannon and Carmine were also experiencing similar events, as Gannon's cybernetic leg vanished in an almost fiery aura, and a new living limb grew in its place, while Carmine simply seemed to grow younger right before Keels rapidly healing eyes.

As much pain as Keel was now experiencing, he found it rather comforting to know at least he'd no longer have to endure the constant jokes at his expense about being more machine than man. He would die a whole and complete human being. Well, at least in the physical sense, at the very least. The same agony spread down Keel's back and snaked inside his torso, thrashing about like a mad serpent, biting at every little thing. Keel thought he could scream no louder, but as soon as the torturous pain actually escalated, he soon discovered that, in fact, he _could _scream louder. His wail had long since ceased to be anything human, more resembling some hateful Banshee shriek, which somehow grew even louder as his internal implants were similarly destroyed to his external prosthetics.

It didn't take long at all for Keel to be reduced to a free-floating bare half torso. After twenty five seconds, he was a full torso with the beginnings of two new legs and right arm and a whole new left arm. Twenty five more seconds, he had two brand new legs and two whole arms; his back-bone was now completely _real_, made of real bone and marrow, nerve and cartilage. Every inch of anatomy that had been replaced by machine had quite simply _regenerated_, and now Keel looked at the world with two new fully functional eyes, his visor gone, no longer necessary. He quickly noticed two other things: firstly, he wasn't in pain anymore, and secondly he noticed that the two male doctors, now young men and physically whole, were floating above the floor as he was. Keel thought the insanity had finally ended, when the light began to die down, the light suddenly exploded to such an intensity, Keel thought his new eyes would spontaneously combust in their sockets. The light had such force behind it, it blew out all the doors, surged through every single solitary electrical circuit and wire, tore apart every single air duct into unrecognizable twisted wrecks, quite simply sweeping through the entire facility like a force of nature, and most importantly of all, propelled people through the air like they had all been fired out of individual cannons.

Keel's brain had finally had enough and simply decided to shut down. Before unconsciousness claimed the now whole and thirty-something Seele Chairman, and gravity reclaimed him and the two male doctors, he whispered, "Now _THAT'S _Third Impact!" Seele Chairman Lorenz Keel smashed into a bank of computers like a high-speed truck, newly youthful face first. The lab suddenly fell into an eerie silence, which was quickly broken when, somewhere on the other side of the ravaged test chamber, a groggy Dr. Carmine groused, "Yeah, well, that last part sucked _balls!_"

Well, Everybody! That is Chapter One to an NGE fiction that's been in my head for YEARS, ever since I first saw the series. I hope you've enjoyed reading this instalment as I have enjoyed presenting it to you. Please read and review, all are welcome, even the flames!


	2. Papa's Got A Whole New Bag, Y'all!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own NGE and all related characters; Studio Gainax and Hideaki Anno own it, so please don't sue me, I'm a shmuck with no cash who's still trying to pay off student loans.

**Author's Notes:** The first half of this chapter takes place several days after the events of chapter one, then we move to a month afterward.

Lorenz Keel has never been known to daydream or even to let his mind wander, but he found he could do nothing but, as he slowly began to regain consciousness. He initially thought that the bright light he was seeing was heaven where he was sure he would be facing the Almighty, or at least some kind of metaphysical doorway into forever, but as his muddled mind began to rev back up to speed, and his thoughts became clearer, he realized a doctor was shining a pen light into his eyes. He realized there was a female nurse just past the doctor's shoulder, taking down notes. _'Just what the hell is she taking notes of? How annoyed I'm getting from that damned-able pen light?' _Keel mentally sneered. He squinted against the light and also did something he had never done in his very long life, no matter who aggravated he felt; he almost playfully bopped the doctor on the forehead.

The doctor looked somewhat surprised, and even a bit annoyed, but decided to keep things professional. The doctor turned the pen light off and replaced the light pen to his pocket. He said, "Well, Chairman Keel, you seem to be in good health", to which Keel snidely replied, "Gee, what incredible powers of deduction you have there. I never would have guessed". The doctor looked rather nonplussed and simply got up and walked out the door, his assistant walking quickly behind him; she was almost to door when she turned around and actually blew Keel a kiss. Keel did a double take at that.

_'She must REALLY like older men!'_ Keel mentally joked, since any woman in her right mind would never want to flirt with some shriveled old junker like him. As he laid there in bed, he realized something profound. He shoot up in bed, his back going ramrod straight as he came to the stunning realization that his entire physical being felt _very _different. Keel looked at his hands and realized that instead of advanced prosthesis, he had flesh and blood hands, with firm, smooth skin that also looked very young, like it belonged to someone in his twenties, late twenties possibly, and rather pale as well, almost completely absent of pigments. He began to examine his new hands and arms, loving the fact that they were not a remarkable hallucination, but in actuality the real thing. In his many years of living, Keel had never felt so alive as he did right this very second. As he began inspecting himself, he not only realized he had the body of a young man along with two complete living arms, he also had two working flesh-and-blood legs.

He through the blanket off, and swung his new legs over the edge of the bed, realizing, that not only did he have brand new legs, that when placed his new feet on the floor and dared to stand up, that they worked brilliantly! Keel could balance himself pretty well, though he was somewhat unsteady, but he wasn't falling over tipsy that he thought he was going to be when trying to stand up. He started taking baby steps to take his legs for a test drive. As he took small, ginger steps, he focused on his new feet and quickly realized that he was indeed _all there. _Keel grinned from ear to ear, also glad that he was finally free of that accursed visor as well. Keel began taking longer steps as he walked around the infirmary room had been resting in. Keel started to chuckle lowly, but it soon escalated into nigh-maniacal giggling and laughing. It simply wasn't possible! He was whole and young again!

As He began to take stock of his new situation, Keel also noticed that he had room-mates. They were staring at him and smiling. While they, like him, were young in appearance, he was startled to realize that he knew these young men.

_'NO, not YOUNG men'_, Keel thought, _'OLD men that LOOKED young!'_

Aloud he said, "Gannon? Carmine? Is that you?"

One of the two young men, with luminescent green eyes, sterling silver-white hair and a boyish complexion , wearing hospital issue pajamas and a night coat, that had been staring at him smirked and waved Keel over. Keel felt steadier by the moment with each step he took, and was soon at the bed-side of the fellow he was absolutely certain was a much younger, and physically fit Doctor Emil Gannon. The young man smiled and sing-song-ed, "You can bet your bottom dollar!" The youthful Gannon had his legs-both now flesh and blood- crossed on top of the sheets and was reclining with a book in hand. Keel whipped around, and the other young man -he was sure that was Doctor Carmine- with rust colored hair and a goatee who was relishing a tray of disgusting looking hospital food like it was cuisine from a five star restaurant.

Keel was certain that watching one more minute of that was going to make his new stomach heave. He turned back to the rejuvenated Gannon who was marking his place in his book. Gannon put the book down on the night stand beside his bed, turned around and sat lotus position. He looked right into Keel's eyes and smiled.

"Enjoyin' the new body, boss?" He quipped. Keel grinned in return and checked himself one more time before saying, "You have no idea. You and Carmine are looking very well, despite that bizarre accident. By the way, just what in the hell exactly happened in there? I thought that we were good and dead after that...whatever _that_ was". Keel noticed a stool beside Gannon's bed and pulled it close and sat down, waiting for answer. Gannon's smile was more subdued, but still present as he leaned back slightly, and closed his eyes as he collected his thoughts. He opened his eyes and addressed Chairman Keel directly.

"What happened, sir? This is what happened: That sour Barbie, Doctor Amanda Krane sabotaged my experiment. She added not only the combat enhancer that Dr. Carmine over there was developing", He gestured to Carmine, who had paused mid-chomp, and was staring at the two of them like a kid who'd been caught with his hand in the candy jar.

"Wha?"

Carmine managed to mumble something unintelligible, his cheeks stuffed with something Keel initially guessed was corn bread. Keel arched a brow at Carmine while Gannon cleared his throat.

"As I was saying, sir, Dr. Carmine's combat enhancer was thrown into the mix, along with what the computers described as a sample of tissue from a previously unknown _Second_ Angel, very similar to the being code-named Adam, but also very different at the same time. That alone knocked my socks off, but get this: The combat enhancer had begun to _alter _this Second Angel's DNA, along with that of the First Angel, simultaneously. You, yourself said to me sir, that angel DNA and human DNA have over 90% genetic markers in common, which by the way disturbs me even to this day, so the combat enhancer had a place to start, a reference point if you will. The enhancer itself was basically a saline solution, some non-toxic suspension fluid, and the main component of the enhancer, the key to it all, a colony of bleeding-edge nano-machines".

Keel straightened up at that bit of information and turned to Carmine. Carmine finished his bite, swallowed some bottled water and cleared his throat before jumping in, "Yes, sir. The liquid components are just for giving the nanites something to be suspended in until they're given directives and injected into a subject.

"The enhancer works like this; you have several components, the nanites which directly perform whatever task or tasks they are assigned, 'Queens' which build the worker nanites, and what I call 'The Queen Mother', a nano-machine command and control module about 200 nanometers in size. The Queen Mother is a molecular manufacturing system as well as C-and-C module. Its job is to mass produce the Queens which are about 17nm is size, which in turn act as productive nanosystems, capable of building both the workers and other Queens. Each Queen can build up to thirty worker nanites, or five new Queens simultaneously by altering any molecules that they collect so that a process called molecular recognition takes place; basically, after the Queens do some molecular tweaking, the materials self-assemble into fully functional nanites ready for programming. The Queen Mother carries schematics for the Queens and worker nanites, as well as a new genetic template for the host subject, plus the operating system. After the number of Queens and worker nanites reaches a critical mass, they spread to every tissue and organ of the host subject, with the Queens acting like foremen on a construction site, with the Queen Mother playing the role of the chief foreman. The workers enter the host subjects cells and replace the original DNA with the new template, but this only happens after the Queens finish analyzing the host DNA, figuring out what each and every gene sequence codes for, whether its eye color, potential height, organ structure and placement, everything and anything.

"The Human Genome Project, despite Second Impact, finished mapping and cataloging the human genome, but figuring out what all those genes code for was a whole different ball game, but a private research firm in China actually cracked it just last year. They decided, against certain 'recommendations' by the Ruling Party, to up load their collectives works to the world wide web. A deep cover CIA operative managed to get us a full and unedited copy of all their work before the Chinese government cracked down on them. It is this data that allowed us to completely rewrite human DNA, creating the enhancile template for the nano-machines to put in place of the original host DNA.

"The nanites create a molecular electronic matrix that they weave right into the repair center of the human brain, and pretty much hack it, dump the original template, and impose the new one. The brain is now telling the body, for lack of a better word that it is blatantly WRONG. The body tears itself apart trying to get itself 'right'.The enhancer as a whole gives the body the ability to adopt the combat template as its 'new' original schematic, and the machines do the rest. The only thing you need to do for the subject is to put them on life support, following a very strict regime of protocols, until after, oh, forty-eight hours, the conversion is complete. The old is either broken down and recycled or modified extensively".

Gannon and Keel both were bug-eyed and slack-jawed. Carmine looked from one stunned face to another and incredulously shot, "well, you didn't pay me to make no tinker toy, now did ya...sir?"

Gannon scratched the back of his head in a nervous gesture, and Keel smiled with an equal mix of shame and awe and said, "NO, no, I don't suppose I did, did I?" It was rather refreshing to meet a scientist who could equally impress and stand up to _him_. A thought popped into his head as he went over what Carmine said about the nano-machines being able to analyze DNA and something struck him.

"Dr. Carmine, I have a question if I may?", Keel began. Carmine nodded to him to continue, "You said that the nano-machines decode a hosts DNA before beginning the enhancement process, correct"

Carmine nodded in answer.

"Then how in the world did they do that with Angel DNA?"

Carmine and Gannon both were surprised by that train of thought. They hadn't really focused on how the change had happened, only that it had. Carmine rested his chin on his closed fist and thought for a moment, but it was Gannon who answered then as his eyes lit up with realization. He snickered a little at his own block-head brain, because the answer to it all had been staring them right in the face the whole time, it had only need some more information to put all the pieces together.

"Chairman Keel, you yourself answered that question, or at least in part. You told us that Angel DNA had over 90% matching base pair sequences with human DNA. The nanites, for the most part, didn't have to decipher what the _similar_ gene sequences were; only the _dissimilar _gene sequences were analyzed. The DNA of Adam and this second Angel were also very much alike, but also very different at the same time. The nanites in the enhancer examined the similar gene sequences in both DNA samples, compared it basic human DNA structure, found not much challenge there when it came to the recombination process, but it was the unique gene sequences that would have given the enhancer nano-machines trouble if not for the fact they had since last night to examine it".

Carmine reached under his pillow and pulled out a high-end PDA and started running through the program list until he came across what he was looking for, namely a secure link to his labs computer. He showed the link to Chairman Keel and Dr. Gannon, and then showed them that his computers and Gannon's were connected via the bases extensive wireless network. In fact, all the computers were linked together on this wireless network.

"You see, when Dr. Carmine and I began exchanging ideas, even sharing our research, which of course Krane was adamantly against, we used wireless modems to connect to other computers on-base", Dr. Gannon began to explain, as he took out his own PDA, "Thankfully, sir, you over-ruled Dr. Krane on that, and even encouraged the different teams to exchange research data because various data could be used to further another teams work, and in many cases it has. All that human genome data that Joe's enhancer needed was stored in his computer, but the enhancer nano-machines were able to access the data using the wireless connection in my lab.

Keel was now listening very intently, putting the pieces into place within his own mind.

"They can transmit a surprisingly powerful signal on their own, but the power boost provided by the energy stimulant plus the unique energy the two samples gave off when they combined made sure the signal was picked up by the modems . Mind you, the power boost also speed up the processing speed of every single electronic device within range, or that were connected, say, by a wireless signal, but said boost only happened when the two samples were accidentally combined; although, the energy provided by the energized Lilith sample seemed to prove quite sufficient by itself. The nanosystems connected with the computers in Joe's lab, accessed the genome data, and had finished decoding the genetic material that humans and Angels have in common in a matter of hours. The genes that were unique to the Angels were studied and analyzed, but you see, Krane had put the second Angel's tissue sample and the enhancer in the same container. She had left them there, in one container since last night. I checked the security logs; she used her administrator access to get into my lab and Dr. Carmine's lab and do the damage. She put the enhancer and the Angel tissue sample in a bio-degradable vial which she slipped into the container of energy stimulant I was going to be using for my experiment that morning. What she didn't realize was that the stimulant had caused the vial to break down hours ahead of schedule. The enhancer could get to the tissue sample, and both were hyper-stimulated by my stimulant pharmaceutical. When the two hyper stimulated materials met Adam's cell samples, all bets were off".

Gannon stopped for a moment, sighing as he tried to find the right words to finish his explanation. He had a strangely calm expression on his face as he said, "The enhancer, after detecting the cellular flux that was occurring, used the energy produced to give itself new found processing power and began to stabilize the genetic material of both samples simultaneously, changing and mutating both genetic codes, compiling and imprinting enhancile templates, but yet without discarding the original, but simply making what may seem to be minor changes, and these minor changes allowed the two genomes to combine into a singular and unique genome. The cells that were created having characteristics of both progenitors, but also completely stand-alone characteristics".

As they all began to let the realization set in that they had inadvertently created cells to a brand new Angel, Keel blurted, "What happened to the sample, by the way?" All three looked at each other with shock as they completely glossed over the actual fate of the new Angel cells. They all leaped to their feet and made for the door, Keel grabbing an extra pair of pajama pants on the way out, quite literally flipping into them. As Gannon and Carmine stared at him dumbfounded, he snidely replied, "I just thought about it and I did it, alright?"

Gannon shrugged his shoulders and Carmine laughed nervously as Keel ran ahead of them. Keel discovered that he was not simply running, he was practically flying down the hallway! Gannon came up on his left, Carmine up on the right. They both had looks of the purest joy and exuberance on their faces at their new-found vitality and ability. Keel grinned from ear to ear as the three continued to accelerate toward their destination. It took them only ten minutes running at full tilt, crossing from the medical wing on the surface to the labs deep below the earth to get back to Gannon's lab, discussing the implications of the sample surviving the experiment and what it meant for mankind as a whole.

They soon arrived at the laboratory section, and found it cordoned off with plastic isolation barriers, the bio-hazard symbol visible in several places, and two armed security guards in fatigues and haz-mat gear. They both stiffened when they saw the three newcomers and aimed their weapons at them and barked, "Hold it right there!" The two guards slowly stepped forward, one covering the other. One guard steeped ahead of the other and this time barked, "Identify yourselves!" Keel gestured for Gannon and Carmine to stay back and walked forward to address the guards. He noticed one of them had a portable hand scanner. Keel knew they'd never believe who they said they were, but if they had some actual evidence – no matter how circumstantial – the two guards would believe them, or at least enough to actually check the results.

"Of course, My good fellow!" Keel chortled, and walked up to the man with the scanner. He held out his hand, palm down, and nodded at the man. The security guard with the scanner got the idea, but moved slowly, wary of any kind of trick this odd man may try. He unclasped the scanner from his belt and turned it on. The scanning surface was turned upward, and Keel very slowly placed his hand on it. As the scanner began to image Keel's palm, it checked finger print records, compared and contrasted results, took a sample of skin to verify DNA, and after several seconds, the scanner made a single beeping noise that signaled it was finished. The guard checked the results on his PDA and balked.

"What the Hell? This says your Chairman Lorenz Keel of the Instrumentality Committee!"

The other guard snorted and replied, "Bullshit! Keel's a shriveled old codger with tin-can body parts! This guy looks like one of those idiot male models. Plus, he's _all there_, if you know what I mean!"

_'A shriveled old codger, am I?' _Keel Mentally shrieked. He felt his face flush, and was about to say something out loud when he noticed the first security guard was talking into a walkies-talkie. Keel was able to make out something about technical malfunctions, but soon got a clearer answer as the guard squawked, "WHAT? This guy really _is _Chairman Keel?" The guard looked from Keel to his partner and stuttered into the walkies-talkie, "B-but...how is that...? Say what now? Oh, come off it! That shit only happens in...wait, that crazy light show last night? Fuck me, he is? Ooh shit!"

The other guard spoke up, "Forbes, what the hell is wrong? What's control saying?"

The man now identified as Forbes looked at his fellow soldier with evident shock and fear in his eyes which were visible through the transparent face plate of the environment mask. He barely whispered the answer. "This man really is Chairman Lorenz Keel. Control just confirmed it. Jackson, this really is him".

The man now identified as Jackson made a choking sound and whipped back to Keel, who had an acidic smile plastered on his face. Keel had his head tilted to one side in an almost playful manner as he whispered, "Somebodies gonna get it!" Jackson made several sounds that were either attempts at clearing his throat or gagging noises that preempting him choking to death. Jackson backed up several steps and straightened his back. He crisply saluted and said, "Mister Chairman, My sincere apologies! I had no idea it was you! It's just that you look so...", unable to find the right word to finish.

"Young?" Keel finished for him. Jackson nodded quickly. Keel walked right up to Jackson and sneered in the man's masked face. "Let me make myself very clear, _young man_. I am no longer some _'shriveled old codger'. _However that happened, I have yet to truly decipher, but when I do, you'll be the first to know. Of course, that is if your still _breathing, _mind you". Jackson visibly paled behind his mask, which made Keel smile all the more broadly. He tilted his head back and briskly shoved Jackson out of the way. Gannon and Carmine quickly followed behind him, Carmine grumbling, "Idiot" in Jackson's direction. As the two guards tried to get a handle on what they just went through, the three rejuvenated men swept through the quarantine barriers and finally entered the laboratory.

The huge testing chamber had become fused and warped beyond recognition and now had been mostly stripped down to the testing equipment Gannon himself had used in his botched energy dampener experiment. Technicians in radiation suits were canvassing the lab with diagnostic equipment, attempting to piece together exactly what had happened here. Gannon laid hands on hips and grumbled under his breath, Keel placing a hand on his shoulder. Gannon looked over his shoulder at Keel and said softly, "You know, Sir, when I woke up yesterday morning, I certainly wasn't picturing the lab you gave me slagged and ruined. I have no idea what to say".

Keel patted the Scottish scientist's shoulder reassuringly, unsure of what to say himself. He had pretty much figured out who was genuinely responsible for the lab accident, and would bring swift justice down on her. For right now, though, recriminations and explanations would have to wait. Keel wanted to know what had happen to the extraordinary DNA sample they had unintentionally created. Such a substance would have enormous value in future endeavors, and considering what effects it had already produced, in Keel's mind, it was quite simply priceless and in need of preservation and protection. If its effects were only temporary, then Keel would require the DNA again to retain his newly restored vigor. The idea of becoming some kind of drug addict did not appeal to Keel one single bit, and so hoped to study the unintentional creation to plumb its secrets.

Secrets that had the potential to change everything, from a single persons life to the entire Scenario itself.

Keel realized that there were those on the Seele council that would be open-minded, or even welcoming of this new power, but sadly there were those who so completely put their faith in the prophecies laid out in the Dead Sea scrolls that they simply would never budge from their current path, and would even seek the containment and destruction of the Adam/Lilith Hybrid DNA. Keel silently vowed that would be happening over his dead and thoroughly decomposed corpse! This glorious substance had given him and his two associates back not only their youth and vitality, but Keel could also feel what he could only describe as power welling up inside him, slowly churning and simmering in his guts, crackling just underneath his skin, making his bones vibrate. If the other Council members had issues with this game-changer, they could take it up with him!

One of the technicians that was inspecting the ruined equipment turned around to see the three men after hearing two of them speak, his co-workers turning their heads to see what he was looking at. Several of them dropped their equipment, squawking in fright or doing double takes, instantly realizing who it was that entered the lab. A young women of Chinese and Indian descent walked up to the three men with a smile on her pretty face, completely without a radiation suit. She wore low-heeled shoe that tapped lightly on the floor, a knee-length blue skirt and a bright orange blouse. Her name tag listed her as a senior technician in one of the life sciences departments, though Keel could never make out the chicken scratch that passed for writing on those silly tags. Her name was Dr. Jasmine Tao, director of the radiology department. She also had expertise with high energy physics, so her skills were required to seek a solution to the accident that had almost killed the three men who had been in fact given a second chance at life.

"Chairman Keel, Dr. Gannon, Dr. Carmine, what a surprise! A pleasant one, mind you, seeing that the three of you aren't any worse for wear despite the accident. What, may I ask, brings you down to ground zero...in your pajamas?" Dr. Tao arched an elegant brow as she finished asking her question, wondering if the three men weren't all there up stairs. Before Keel could say a word, Dr. Gannon stepped forward, a bashful smile spreading a cross his face with a matching blush.

"Well, you see, lass, we began to wonder about the root of the problems that happened here, and when we came to realize what exactly we had on hand, we just rushed out of the med-wing like bats out of hell, not even thinking about us still being in our skimmies". Dr. Carmine's smile could light up a small room, along with his prominent blush. Keel quirked a brow at this, while Dr. Carmine face-palmed himself, shaking his head at his friends inability to keep from acting like a schoolboy around a pretty lady.

Whereas Keel was taken aback slightly and Dr. carmine was annoyed, Dr. Tao snorted with laughter, just barely able to restrain herself from laughing out loud. A small tear slid down her cheek, which was quickly wiped away. As she composed herself, Dr. Tao chuckled, " Oh, you just made my day!" Gannon himself seemed more composed and far less nervous, and decided to go a step further with the conversation.

"Thank you, Doctor. Mother always said I had a sense of humor. To be serious for a moment though, the whole reason my colleague and the good Chairman came down here in such a rush is that we were intensely curious about the biological material created during the mishap that caused all this mess in the first place". Dr. Gannon didn't mind having a conversation with an attractive lady, but right now they had a serious mystery to confront, and a host of possibilities for the future to delve into, and right now, the only way these things were going to happen was if the newly created bio-sample was still intact and viable.

He needn't have worried, because Dr. Tao looked past his shoulder, gestured to someone behind him. That someone was pushing a trolly with several large metal canisters on it. The transparent panels on the sides allowed a kaleidoscope glow to escape. Dr. Gannon whipped back around to Dr. Tao, who had a mischievous smile on her face. Dr. Gannon couldn't resist the impulse, placed both his hands on either side of her face and kissed her full on the lips. Keel and Carmine both looked shocked at the good Doctors behavior, while Doctor's Tao and Gannon was rather enjoying themselves.

Several of the technicians whistled or cat-called at the unexpected show, but quickly shut up and tried to busy themselves when Keel glared at them. As the two scientists parted, Gannon had a charming grin that stretched from ear to ear while Tao had a furious blush and a cheeky smile. They both turned around when Keel cleared his throat. Keel had a bemused smirk on his handsome face, snickering under his breath.

"When you to decide to start a family, I'd like it if you named your first-born after me. Now, If you don't mind, let's focus on the reason behind our little trip?" Keel chuckled as he continued to watch the two scientists act like teenagers caught in the act by their parents. Keel was simply enjoying this new vitality, and even enjoying all else that came with it.

Both of the embarrassed scientists cleared their throats at Keel's response to their childish antics, with Dr. Tao picking up the slack.

"Ahem, my apologies, sir, I kinda got carried away. Now, onto the bio-sample that you all were so adamant about examining", she gestured toward the large containers giving off the multicolored glow, "We've only just begun analysis of the bio-matter that was created during the accident; we've noted some remarkable properties. An immediately practical one is that it gives off a unique electromagnetic charge that causes a slight molecular realignment in practically every kind of conductive material, particularly materials used in electronics. While the molecular realignment doesn't damage the material, or causes it to become unstable, what it does do is increase conductive potential to- at room temperature, no less- super conductive levels. By the way, this molecular change is for all intents and purposes, permanent".

"Say what?" That outburst came from Dr. Carmine who had been idly walking around the lab, looking around at nothing in particular, until that is He heard what Dr. Tao had just said. He poked his head out from behind a ruined computer cabinet. He practically skipped over and got almost right in Tao's face.

"Darlin', let me see if I got this right: every single conductive material within range of effect of the energy blast that was fired off by the accident has now become super conductive at room temperature? That's nuts! Mind you, that also sounds really cool; computers will have more processing power, way more RAM, much greater memory capacity, all without having to do any serious upgrades! Communication systems will be much more efficient, anything and everything that's computer controlled will operate and react faster! Wonder how fast I'll be able to download some songs?"

Carmine looked rather excited about either possibility, the important ones or the personal ones no one was really sure. The changes to the technology on the base he mentioned were only the tip of the proverbial ice berg, if Tao's conclusions were accurate. Sensitive diagnostic equipment would not only operate at much faster speeds, it would in fact become more sensitive, while at the same time become more robust, resistant to EM interference or damage beyond the norm; analysis tools would yield more accurate results in less time, surveillance tools would gain greater power and produce much clearer visuals and audio. The possibilities for this new power when focused solely on technology were staggering in implication, but then Keel asked the next obvious question: "So what about biological systems? How is it that they react so dramatically to this energy? What does it do, exactly, to living cellular matter?"

Keel's question surprised everyone, save for Dr. Gannon, who had a confident smile on his face. He already had a theory about it.

"The energy, Mr. Chairman, radiates in waves, on a very unique frequency. The creatures the two separate bio-samples came from are composed of a form of organic matter that has properties of both particles and waves. The bio-matter that was created was constantly generating energy in a wave-form pattern. That same energy, in a sense, had a programmed behavior; to exist as this variable particle-wave form, but because the energy was unstable, it stayed as not only a wave-form, but pure energy. Except, in the case of living matter already present in its vicinity. The energy is benign to ordinary cellular matter, and in fact is transmitted through living nervous tissue like a normal neural-electrical impulse. When it arrives at synapse or nerve ending, it spreads out, and already finding stable, coherent living cells, it regains the ability to take on a physical existence. As the energy become this variable matter form, it integrates itself right into whatever organic systems it encounters, and even begins to make modifications, alterations, adapting itself along with the host to maximize compatibility".

All the technicians in the room had stopped their work and were listening very intently to what the Doctors had to say. Strangely enough, each and every person in the room had been developing theories about what had happened, and those same theories lined up with Dr. Gannon's almost perfectly, save for very miniscule factors. He spoke again, but in a sombre tone, yet everyone could feel a sense of sheer awe about the man when when uttered these next words:

"For all intents and purposes, Lads and Lassies, each and every person transformed by this energy has become what the Bible describes as Nephilum. We are half Angel".

Several technicians began removing the hoods of their suits, revealing very young people with very fair skin, almost white, underneath. The oldest looked no more than twenty one, the youngest looked barely into their mid-teens. Keel almost fell over sideways, while all three doctors had varying expressions. Dr. Tao had a knowing grin, while Doctors carmine and Gannon were both shocked and amazed in equal parts. Keel only now realized that most everybody he had seen today so far had the same albino-like complexions, even Dr. Tao, who despite being an attractive mix of Indian and Chinese, had a far lighter complexion than she had ought to.

That terrific thrill that was causing Keel to shiver as though freezing had one more dash of flavor to it. As he looked at everyone, he noticed their eyes. Their eyes all his sprinklings of red on the iris. He became even more excited when he wondered what his own eyes now looked like.

He walked over to the sample canisters that held the other worldly bio-matter that had granted to Lorenz Keel the immortality he had so long sought and placed his hands upon the chamber. He whispered excitedly, yet reverently, loudly enough for everyone to hear him. All eyes turned to Keel. He said, "Mine Dame and Mine Herr...We have much work to do!"

_**One Month Later...**_

Emil Gannon was resting comfortably in his seat in Keel's personal hyper-sonic jet. He had an easy smile on his face as he rested while on his way to Japan. He was going to be taking care of a very important young man, as well as preparing him for the coming Angel War.. To think that the bio-mechanical super weapons that were being developed required _children _to be their pilots! It made Emil sick to his stomach, but thankfully being a genius with a five-digit IQ, working with a great many folks with matching IQ's, they'd have this problem sussed out in no time. His current assignment was going to be a bit tricky, but if handled right, it would turn into a joy.

His assignment starting off was to meet a young boy named Shinji Ikari, the young son of one Gendo Ikari, the man who soon to become the man in charge of the newly forming NERV organization. Emil's task was simple: the boy had been abandoned by his father after his mother's passing and dumped on relatives, but instead of trying to embrace the boy, his relatives had simply tolerated him while he lived with them. He had no genuine friends, and had become a rather profound introvert. He was afraid of opening up to others because he feared those he opened up to would hurt him. Gannon had watched the footage from Evangelion Unit-01's first test activation, with the poor boy's mother Yui Ikari, who had been the first test pilot, being absorbed when Unit-01 had fully began to activate. That alone had made Gannon want to wretch, but he after the video ended, Chairman Keel had handed him the personal journal of the woman who had been absorbed. He had been told to read it from cover to cover. He swore after reading it that if that hateful woman had lived, Emil would have put a bullet in her eye. She had KNOWN she would be absorbed by Unit-01, and had made sure her husband and young son had watched it happen. She had ruined the two of them, all for some insane plan to supposedly create a second chance for the human race!

'May you roast in Hell, ye damned witch!' Emil angrily thought to himself, his easy smile replaced with a savage snarl. A gasp beside him made him jump in his seat, and he turned to see the stewardess right beside him, a look of pure fright on her pretty face. Hew doe-like eyes were fearful, and Gannon had a good idea why. He was just about to apologize for scaring her and offer an explanation, but Chairman Keel had come up from an aft office where he had been teleconferencing with the UN security council, adjusting a pair of sunglasses he had hastily put on..

"Jessica, My dear, could you get us a couple of bottled waters? That damn meeting went on far longer than I had hoped it would", Keel said as he made a show of loosening the collar of his designer dress shirt and tie. The stewardess silently nodded to Chairman Keel's request and hurriedly moved past him and went toward her station in the aft section, looking back at Dr. Gannon with a decidedly fearful look. Keel also gave Gannon a look, but this one was of annoyance. He shook his head from side to side, and sighed quite loudly.

"You know, Emil, that temper of yours is going to end up causing more problems than we seek to correct. We have to be sure that we don't 'over-exert' ourselves, or we're going to be forced to answer questions that we simply are unable to", Keel admonished. He sat down next to Emil and stretched his arms above his head, as though he were stiff from the long trip from Berlin to Japan. Dr. Gannon had been at the Berlin labs making some final adjustments to several new pieces of equipment that the Evangelions units were going to be fielding. Most of the equipment was internal implant upgrades and even several hardware additions. The only external upgrade was going to be a single piece combat augmentation exo-shell. The greater details of the internal upgrades He'd leave until they were actually going to deploy the Eva's. He knew that Nerv's new commander was going to try everything in his power to interfere with the equipment upgrades, but he'd soon learn that complete obedience would be his only option.

If Ikari tried any kind of subversion, Unit-01 would be systematically disassembled and destroyed. He would be forced to watch the procedure from start to finish, and then watch as a superior replacement for the Evangelion was constructed, also right before his eyes. Keel and Gannon were going to directly take over raising the commander's son, who it seems was destined to pilot the Test-type Evangelion. The boy, because of his massive introversion, would only be able to connect with his mother's spirit within the Evangelion, which both empowered the construct, and would give him a high level of synchronization with the bio-mechanical construct. By raising the boy in an environment where he would be actively cared for, and not simply sustained, the idea was to bring him out of his melancholy state, and make him into a genuinely open young man. What made this plan so important is that Emil had found away to empower an Evangelion without the empowering human spirit; when Emil had learned what it took to completely activate an Evangelion, he had almost walked out the door and not looked back. The only thing stopping him was Chairman Keel giving him a blank cheque to develop a means to empower an Evangelion.

He actually pulled it off. He and his long time friend and colleague Dr. Carmine had actually, truly done it. Quite literally, it was a quantum computer that was capable of giving rise to a unique and original soul, powerful enough to empower an Evangelion. It was all made possible by the hybrid angel DNA that had been accidentally created. This massively powerful substance could not only generate a form of energy that could regenerate life, but it could also create it, induce genuine evolutionary mutations in living beings, resulting in heightened mental faculties in higher order animals. This very energy would be transmitted throughout the Eva's nervous system via integrated neural circuitry that would mesh directly with the living nerve tissue. The hybrid DNA would be used as the basis for the bio-neural matrix of the computer's core. The one, but also biggest concern was that the casing would be damaged during combat and the hybrid material would be inadvertently introduced to the Evangelion's system. There was absolutely no idea what would happen if that happened, but Emil would make sure that didn't happen. While he would advocate the hybrid DNA being used in a bio-computer, he wasn't about to make an Evangelion out of the stuff.

His mind continued to roll through this idea among others when Chairman Keel tapped him on the shoulder. Keel said, "We're getting ready to land, My friend. Time to get our game faces on and meet our young soon-to-be ward".

Gannon smiled at finally reaching Japan. Soon they would touch down, disembark and get into the private car that Keel had arranged. They would head toward Hakodate, Hokaido, where Shinji was staying with his relatives. They would introduce themselves and explain the reasons for their visit to all concerned. They would immediately address the concerns from all concerned parties, and then they would help Shinji pack, but not before treating them all to a relaxed meal in a local restaurant. Gannon found it hard not to be anxious as the plane began its swift descent. He felt his stomach rise into his chest a bit as the plane dipped downward. Before he hated to fly for that very reason, because he always got stomach sick afterward. Now he relished the sensation, and was looking forward to meeting the young man upon which so much was apparently dependent.

He whispered to himself, "Here we go".

After three-and-a-half hours of driving after getting off the plane, they arrived in Hakodate, Hokaido, and were now heading directly for the home of Alicia and Tomoe Ikari, Yui Ikari's Brother and sister-in-law. Gannon saw the house appear in the driver-side window, and all but hopped out the door the moment the car came to a stop. Keel called after him, but Gannon never paid him any heed as he swept up the cobble-stone walk-way toward the house's front porch. He cleared the steps in a single bound and straightened out his expensive dress coat as he rang the door bell. The pleasant chime could be heard from outside, and sounded like several notes from Handel's _'Messiah'_. He waited for someone to come to the door, so jumped a bit when the door seemed to open by itself. He should not have worried, when a small Japanese boy, no more than six years old came out from behind the door. Gannon smiled at the adorable little guy when he realized that this was the boy he was going to be looking after. Thank God he learned Japanese. Having an exponential learning curve helped a fair bit.

"Can I help you sir?" the small boy asked in Japanese. Gannon smiled so broadly, the corners of his mouth threatened to touch his ears. Cute as a button and polite to boot! Gannon got down on one knee and smiled at the boys as he replied in Japanese, "Yes, my lad, you most certainly can". He wrapped his arms around Shinji in a genuinely warm hug, but not so hard that he would scare the boy. He felt the boy tense up at the embrace, but after a few seconds, returned the hug, although awkwardly.

Keel heard Shinji ask, "Why are you hugging me?" Gannon quickly replied, "Because, laddie, you looked like you needed one".

Keel had come up behind the two and shook his head, concerned the Scotsman was going to get himself in trouble on of these days for being so forward. He noticed Shinji's Aunt emerged from the kitchen down the hall, a tall woman in her late thirties, and surprisingly dark red hair who was quick to give Gannon a piece of her mind for trying to molest her Nephew, who herself got a piece of Gannon's mind for simply taking in Shinji just because she was strong-armed into it.

"How dare you just grab my Nephew like that, you creep! Just who do you think you are?"

"How dare _I? How dare you, _you lousy twit! You only took the boy in because your man-skank brother-in-law bullied you into it, and gave you a big cash payoff to boot, you cheap tie-dyed _bimbo!_"

"Why, I _never_!..."

"Well, now you have!"

"_**ENOUGH!"**_

That powerful bellow came from Keel who had come up right beside the quarreling adults, though he doubted they were as nearly as mature that each would claim they were. Thankfully, Shinji's uncle was nowhere to be found, thanks to the fact that he currently at work, or this would have escalated even further into absurdity. Both the adults jumped at the boom of Keel's powerful voice, and poor Shinji looked like a pale deer-in-the-headlights.

Keel glared at both the adults and said with smooth menace, "How about we go into the house and discuss the state of affairs like _reasonable adults_?" , emphasizing the last two words with a snarl. Both the adults looked rather ashamed at themselves for acting so immaturely. They both mumbled out apologies, walking slowly toward the house, but still giving each other dirty looks. Shinji had no idea what was going on, but since he was asked to join the conversation, he guessed he would figure things out soon enough.

Alicia looked at the two young men and wondered just who they were, and what gave the guy with the odd accent the nerve to go grabbing her nephew like he did. The two men removed their sunglasses, revealing eyes that most certainly did not belong in a human beings head. Both men had eyes where the whites were in fact oily black and glossy, while the iris' where large and icy blue with pin-point pupil's.

As they pocket their sunglasses, the taller of the two extended his hand toward her, a beaming smile that could light up a room and spoke with a distinctly German accent, "Good afternoon, Mrs. Ikari. My name is Lorenz Keel, and the vocal fellow behind me is Dr. Emil Gannon. We need to talk to you about what you know, and don't know, about your dearly departed Sister-in-law. When your husband comes home, we can then discuss young Shinji here".

As those piercing eyes locked with hers, she thought to herself, 'Oh, Sis. What in the world did you get yourself involved with?'

**Author's Notes: **Well, folks, it's been a while since I've updated last, and I hope you enjoy this newest chapter. The next chapter sees Shinji start off on his adventures, but with Dr. Gannon in tow, and Gendo gets a verbal bitch-slapping from Keel! So don't miss out on chapter three: "Smacked Your Mom Up!".


	3. Smack Your Mom Up

**Disclaimer:** I do not own NGE and all related characters, except for my OC's. Studio Gainax and Hideaki Anno own it, so please don't sue me. I know I'm repeating my original disclaimer almost verbatim, but, hey, repeating something adds emphasis.

**Author's Notes:** Well, folks like I said, this chapter features Shinji starting his adventures with Nerv, but he's got Dr. Gannon along for the ride. Misato is gonna need some Tylenol, and a _lot _more beer!

Shinji Ikari was looking at the pay-phone receiver in his hand like it was something toxic and alien, and put it back on its cradle rather gingerly. He backed away several steps, never noticing Dr. Gannon also backing up, but with a distinctly nervous look on his face. He had a good reason to be nervous, as Shinji removed from underneath the duster coat he was wearing, an enormous side-arm that looked like a high-tech blend of a .44 magnum, pump-action shotgun, and grenade launcher. The drum was an extra-large version of a magnum's ammo drum, the muzzle looked like it belonged on a grenade launcher, and it was just long enough to accommodate a pump-grip. Shinji had taken to naming the weapon 'Happy-San', because every time he fired it, he cheered up. Plus, using ammo with sixteen times the stopping power of dum-dum rounds, it was in Gannon's opinion, a miniature cannon with a custom pistol grip.

Gannon was roused from his musing when he heard the disturbingly heavy sounds of 1) the gun's safety being released, and 2) the hammer being pulled back. Gannon prayed to God that Shinji would reconsider what he was about to do, but the sudden, bone-jarring boom of "Happy-San" squashed that. Gannon looked to heaven and whispered, "Father, forgive him...he was raised by a gun-happy Yankie and a nutty bugger of a German. I tried to be a good role model, but all I ended up doin' was give 'im an appreciation for red-head's. Oh, and the occasional Asian mix!" He snickered under his breath as he thought about that special lady that stole his heart those years ago, "Oh, Lordy, I'm cracked! I'm gonna burn in Hell".

Shinji had re-holstered the huge side-arm and swept his inky black hair back with a gloved hand, not noticing his glove came away shiny, adjusting the deeply-tinted sunglasses he wore as well. He knew what he had just done was wrong, but he was in no mood what-so-ever to put up with some kind of automated BS. Years ago when Dr, Gannon had come to his Aunt and Uncle's home, he had learned the terrible truth about the what and how's of his Mother's Death. He had even learned the why's. He had at one point even learned about how Dr. Gannon and others had been changed by a remarkable power. What no one expected was that Shinji would find a way to change himself in a similar fashion, but with the same remarkable results. He knew that there would be questions when they got to Nerv, but those could wait. Chairman Keel had warned him that his Father had several times tried to stop the installation of special up-grades that Dr. Gannon and Dr. Carmine had developed to give the Eva's an edge, but his Father kept insisting that the Evangelions would be far more 'effective' without the upgrades then with them.

That little comment got Gendo chewed out by the entire Human Instrumentality Committee for well over eight hours straight, plus adding insult to injury would be that Dr. Gannon would be joining Shinji when his time to pilot came. Gannon was just about to give Shinji a piece of his mind, plus a solid thump in the head when they suddenly heard the sound of heavy gun-fire, missile explosions, and the detonations of other heavy ordnance. The two looked at each other and realized that they also experienced a strange sensation, almost like angry whispering in the back of their minds, with crackling lightning in the back ground. They also picked up on a very distinctive, and a very _ANGRY _presence roaring hatred and violence in equal parts.

"_**STINKING WRETCHED APES! WHERE IS THE ALL-FATHER! HE IS THE FIRST AND THE LAST, AND YOU DARE TO PRESUME YOURSELVES HIS MASTERS, HIS EXECUTIONORS? BURN FILTHY VERMIN!"**_

Shinji and Dr. Gannon were so powerfully hit with the mental bile the hostile presence was throwing out, they dropped to their knees and almost never noticed a VTOL flying backwards from down a side street, firing madly, and then suddenly exploding into a white-orange fire ball and globes of flying whites hot slag. They stayed down and the debris just barely missed them. They staggered to their feet and were just about to make a dash for it, but the sound of screeching tires caught their attention. A blue Renault sports car zipped around a corner so fast that when it took the turn, it almost flipped over, but either the skill of the driver, sheer dumb luck, or a hefty sprinkling of both keep the car on its wheels. The driver slammed on the brakes, skidding to a heart-fluttering stop no more than two feet from Shinji who had ducked again, fearing becoming road custard. The young Ikari whipped his head up just in time to get a face full of door as it was swung open with a great deal of force.

"_WHOLPH!" _

Shinji grunted in pain as Dr. Gannon finally got to his feet and staggered over to the boy, still disorientated from the Angel's mental assault. The driver of the car spoke up, not realizing they had smashed Shinji in the face with the door. "Sorry, did I keep you waiting?" the driver asked in a playful tone of voice. Dr. Gannon looked through the open door and was greeting by a lovely young Japanese woman with flowing purple hair wearing sunglasses, sports gloves, and a rather nice sleeveless black-dress. Dr. Gannon was about to openly comment about her looks when Shinji leaped into the passenger seat and practically screamed, "GO, GO, GO!" Dr. Gannon leaped over a startled Shinji into the back seat of the car as the woman floored the accelerator. As the car sped away, a gigantic grotesque stepped from around the corner. It had no discernible head, but had a sharp white mask-like structure that seemed to grow from between its massive bulbous shoulder which were encased in sweeping bone shells that made it look like it wearing macabre shoulder armor equipped with gills. Its ribs were protruding from its chest and seemed to grip a huge red sphere that also emerged from its chest, like razor sharp claws grabbing at a priceless treasure.

"Well, now, isn't that an ugly bugger!" Dr. Gannon grumbled in English as he tried to settle in the back seat of the woman's car, even as she swerved and weaved through streets like a maniac. She took a quick glance in her rear-view mirror, trying to get a better look at the handsome fellow who had accompanied the boy she was sent to pick up. He had platinum blonde hair and she was pretty sure he was an albino, but he had on odd accent that she was sure was European, but she wasn't quite sure what it was. He and Shinji were talking in English, making her wish she had actually put some effort in to Mr. Tanaka's foreign language course in college instead of texting to Ritsuko about boys they liked. They suddenly switched back to Japanese, with Shinji re-aligning his nose with a crunch and grumbling, "You have to be Katsuragi-san. Nice to meet you, I'm a grade-A whack job. I hope you like 'um young 'cause I know I like you".

Misato had absolutely no idea how to respond to that, if the boy was mad about getting the door smacked into his face and this was his way of dealing with it, or if this was how he was normally. She decided to grin and bare it. She chuckled nervously and murmured, "Well, Hello to you, too!" She giggled at Shinji's odd behavior, but almost started screaming when he stuck his whole upper body out the window, shouting to the older man in back, "Hey, Doc! Give me your gun!" Misato had a bad feeling about that comment; _'Gun?'_, she thought, and felt her face drain of blood as Shinji pulled out his coat the biggest side-arm she'd ever seen. The man that Shinji referred to as 'Doc' handed Shinji a similarly massive weapon, and mumbled something about kicking an American idiot , when Shinji clicked off both guns safeties, leaned out the window and actually started firing at the Angel. _''Is He nuts?'_, Misato mentally screamed to herself and Shinji fired like a drunken loon, screaming "Yippie-kiya, Mother Fucker!" like it was some kind of battle cry, while the albino European man kept trying to both pull the boy back in to the car, yelling at him to be more careful, while simultaneously trying to get the guns from him and try shooting the Angel himself.

She shook her head at the insane shenanigans and put a call into headquarters, being answered by her long-time friend and co-worker Dr. Ritsuko Akagi. Akagi responded tersely, "Yes, Captain?" She sounded upset about something, and while Misato was loathe to further aggravate the faux blonde, she needed to keep her appraised. "Hi, Ritzy! I picked up the kid, but he's fairly wacky. He's actually shooting at the Angel! Yes I said 'shooting'! As with guns! I picked up somebody else along with him. Who is he? I don't know, wait a second!", and she looked over her shoulder at the pale man and flirtatiously asked him, "Hey cutey, what's your name?"

He smiled at her and calmly answered, "Emil Gannon, darling", that strange but attractive burr in his voice rolling the R's. Misato relayed the name, but almost leaped out of her seat when Akagi screamed down the line, "What is that Scottish bastard doing here? I thought that quack was still in the States?"

Gannon swiped the phone from Misato, and screamed down the line himself, "Akagi, you bleach-blonde skank! You tried to shut down my projects ever since you heard of me, and you even tried to sabotage the exo-shell program I was runnin' with Dr. Joseph Carmine! We're trying to save the world, just like you, but you can't fuckin' understand that _we_ don't give a damn about credit or who gets the glory, but for whatever reason, YOU DO!"

He snappishly added, "Oh, by the by, we need an express train car. See ya in five!" He snapped Misato's phone shut and slipped it back to the shocked woman, who simply kept on driving, and Shinji decided to save his ammo since his guns weren't really doing any damage, and also he had lost sight of the enormous monster. Misato had no idea what was going on between Dr. Akagi and the foreigner in her back seat, but what the two had screamed at each other over the phone was something that she felt held a lot of bad blood on both sides, and what was this about Ritsuko trying to sabotage some kind of project? Her old college friend could be passionately competitive, but actively trying to sabotage somebody else's work? Come on! But still...

Whatever the case, she was just going to have get answers later, as the car was almost at the entrance to the base. The winding road offered those in the car a clear view of the clearly one-sided battle as the military forces were vanquished with almost chilling ease. Misato pulled over the car and stopped, getting out and checking out the battle with a pair of binoculars while the two passengers climbed out too, both wondering why they stopped. Misato suddenly tensed as the JSSDF plans suddenly pulled back.

"Oh, God, they're gonna!...", but never got the chance to finished as a thunderous boom echoed across the valley, a fiery mushroom cloud rising skyward. The shock-wave and wind were certainly going to flip her car, but when she spared a look, she saw Shinji and the Scottish man holding their hands out as though to ward stop the incoming wave. She thought they were both nuts, until their hands started glowing, and suddenly a hexagonal patterned energy field sprang from their hands and did exactly that.

_'Holy shit, that's an AT-Field! Who...WHAT are they?'_ Misato mentally barked.

The lashing winds and initial shock wave hit the AT-Field like a freight train, but warped around the energy barrier they threw up, completely protecting everyone from the jarring impacts. Misato had no idea what was going on, and she was mentally fighting herself on whether to draw her gun on them, which her rational mind told would do no good, but her purely emotional side told her to shoot them dead, they were the same kind of monster that was attacking but in human form.

She realized they were both looking at her, even while keeping up the field, smiling at her, with Dr. Gannon giving her a mischievous wink and Shinji looking at his elder like he was going to kick him for some unknown offense. As the howling winds and shock-waves finally dissipated, the two dropped the field and brushed themselves off. Shinji turned to the Doctor and asked, "Dr. Gannon, she saw us use our abilities, what do we do?" Dr. Gannon was about to answer when Misato pulled out her gun, clicked off the safety and pointed it at them. Her grip they noticed was a bit shaky, but considering what she had just witnessed them do, they were both surprised she wasn't a babbling mess. Misato needn't have drawn, as her weapon was swiped from her hand by Dr. Gannon, who prompted crushed it like a empty pop can and threw it over his shoulder. He bent the hip and said a single word: _"Don't"_.

He called over Shinji while he was trying to calm down the Captain, but was having the opposite effect.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME, YOU FREAK SHOW!"

Shinji winced as Captain Katsuragi tried slapping Dr. Gannon, but he caught her wrist in his hand, whipped off his designer sun-glasses and stared right into her eyes. She gasped loudly enough to make Shinji initially think something was wrong with her, then quickly remembered why someone would gasp like that when looking into Dr. Gannon's eyes. The whites of his eyes had turned completely black, and his iris' were a shocking electric blue. Shinji knew those eyes very well; for one thing He saw those same eyes years ago when He met Dr. Gannon for the first time, and the second thing was he had eyes just like those. When Dr. Gannon had said that he and Shinji had changed in similar ways, he had it partially wrong; Where Dr. Gannon had been exposed to a bizarre energy generated by an accidentally created hybrid DNA sample of extra-terrestrial origin, Shinji's transformation had been more...direct.

That was beside the point at the moment, as Shinji realized that time was ticking by, and also that Dr. Gannon had gotten the Captains car on all four wheels again. Misato was standing slightly off to one side, her arms folded over her chest in a way that conveyed not annoyance or anger, but uncertainty. Shinji had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts, he had missed what Dr. Gannon had said to Misato, but that could wait for another time. Dr. Gannon had begun opening up the hoods of several abandoned cars and taking the batteries out.

"Oh, wonderful, Las Vegas all over again!" Shinji grumbled. Gannon swung his head out from underneath a car hood and snarled, "Hey, hey, don't you dare be bringing _that _up again! It was bad enough going through that God forsaken mess in the first place! We are not going down that particular memory lane, not if I have anything to say about it!" Shinji all but jumped out of skin at Gannon's surprise fit, and Misato looked like she wanted to scream and run away. Shinji quickly threw on a look of apology and Gannon went back to pilfering car batteries, grumbling about "damn zombies chihuahuas" and "mutant strippers" all the while. Misato now had a look of perplexity and downright confusion spread across her pretty features, one eye brow almost touching her hairline.

"U-um, just who the Hell are you guys, and how can I get out of this crazy nightmare?" Misato asked as she watched Gannon thrash about under yet another car hood. He was swearing in what She thought was Gaelic, and now had extricated himself from underneath the car hood.

Well, he tried to.

He stood up far to quickly and banged his head on the hood, which came loose and slammed him back down onto the engine block, pinning him. Misato actually started laughing, while Shinji had to fight to restrain himself and went over to help his fiery mentor. After several minutes of Gaelic epithets and some straight forward swearing, plus giving Misato and Shinji withering dirty looks, the youthful Scotsman took the pilfered batteries and dumped them into the back seat, using jumper cables and long coils of wire to jury-rig them to Misato's car battery. He also took out what looked like a small carrying case from underneath his coat and opened it. Attached to the inside of the lid were three vials of silvery liquid. Small tools were the primary contents of the container. He simply poured one vial of liquid onto the engine, the other two being poured little by little onto any part of car that Gannon could get at. Misato went to get in the car and speed off, not trusting these Angels in human form, which is exactly what she thought they were. Unfortunately, Gannon held her back, checking an antique pocket watch he pulled out of a coat pocket, waiting for something to happen.

That something was a lot of muffled metallic clicking, something like electrical buzzing mixed with whirring, and what Misato would later swear to as metal warping and bending. Misato took a closer look at her car, and realized her car was actually _fixing itself!_ Gannon had an arrogant smirk on his face and Shinji walked up behind her and tapped her hard right at the base of her skull, knocking her out. He caught her as though she weighed nothing. Shinji and Gannon both shared a sad look, realizing that while they should have tried to convince Captain Katsuragi that they were not a threat, they simply did not have the time. '_The wonders of a psychic link'_, Gannon thought as Shinji threw the unconscious woman over his shoulder, walked over to the now pristine Renault, open the passenger side door and slid up the seat so her could put gently in the back seat. Dr. Gannon got in the driver seat while Shinji rode shotgun. He dialed Dr. Akagi's number on Misato's phone and told her that the Captain had been hurt, though not very badly, and to expect them any minute, along with a call from Lorenz Keel himself.

Whatever argument or insult she was going to hurl at Gannon was stifled in her throat. She nervously asked, "C-Chairman Keel? Why would he be calling me?" She got her answer in a smugly delivered retort of "He found proof that you _did sabotage _My exo-shell, that's why" and the connection was abruptly severed. As Ritsuko Akagi felt her hands go numb and skin go cold, her stomach twist into knots, her cell phone slipped out of her hand and clattered to the floor of her office. Her mind reeled as she tried to figure out how she had been found out. The Commander had wanted the exo-shell program scrapped, and so she had traveled to America, found an isolated spot outside the base where the shell was being developed, and covertly hacked into the base mainframe, and then what she thought had been the exo-shell systems. She now realized what she had hacked into had been dummy systems, diversions while the real exo-shell systems were running through system diagnostics and final prepping.

And now Chairman Lorenz Keel was going to expose her and have her arrested for espionage, and probably have her killed for trying to interfere with his two favored scientists. No, first he would have her 'questioned' as to who was giving her her marching orders, but he probably already knew, and would just want some legal proof that Ikari was involved, and then He'd bury them both...in _every_ sense of the word. She was just about to make a bee-line for the door, try just to get some distance from Nerv when her office phone began to ring. She realized if She didn't answer, Keel would realize she was trying to run and have His men intercept her, and none too gently she guessed. She shakily picked up the receiver, put it to her ear and softly asked, "Hello?"

"You know, Dr. Akagi, I always thought you and your mother were a bit, well, off. I just never thought you were stupid. You will be taught some manners young lady, and you _will _remember these lessons well", was the menacing answer she received, and Ritsuko knew who had given it to her. Before she could respond, a heavy hand clamped over her mouth, chloroform-soaked rag muffled her initial scream, and silencing it as she passed out. She was hastily thrown over a broad shoulder, which she couldn't see by the way, completely without regard for her safety, and taken out of her office. Before unconsciousness completely claimed her, Ritsuko realized her abductor had to duck and turn to get through her office door, indicating quite a bit of height, and that also the halls were empty, a rare thing considering the high alert level the base had been placed at.

As Ritsuko's mind began to finally shut down, she heard her assailant snicker in a voice like a rolling storm, "Boy oh boy lady, did you piss off the wrong guy! He's gonna smack you up so bad, your mommy's gonna feel it!"

Gendo Ikari was not having a good day at all. Well, that's not entirely true. The military representatives who were watching their forces be slaughtered by the Third Angel Sachiel, and finally conceding defeat after the N2 mine failed to finish the creature off, had passed mission authority to him, which pleased him greatly. He was having Unit-01 prepped for combat when he got a very angry call from Chairman Keel, who had found out about the sabotage of the combat exo-shell being developed and was 'taking steps', as he put it, to make sure Ikari paid for it. For starters, Keel himself was coming to Japan to directly oversee Nerv operations, but keeping a low profile publicly. He was going to make damn sure there was no more interference with either Gannon or Carmine, the latter of which was also on his way to Japan to give Dr. Gannon some support. They would be made co-directors of Project E as he was having Dr. Akagi 'questioned' as to her involvement with the attempted sabotage of the Exo-shell.

'Well, this whole day has gone to pot', Gendo thought angrily as Keel dropped his last bomb-shell: the three of them had raised Shinji into an out-going and fun loving boy while also giving him the proper training to operate an Evangelion. Keel added salt to Gendo's many wounds by describing many of Shinji's unique 'quirks' as he put it. Gendo did a double-take toward the receiver on his private phone like it had sprouted eyes and started ogling him. Gendo swore underneath his breathe as he heard his immediate subordinate Kozo Fuyutsuki snickering behind him, enjoying Gendo's grief just a bit too much from a professional stand-point. Gendo wanted to glare at his former college teacher, but decided to refrain as Keel was demanding his full attention.

"Let me be very clear, _Commander_", Keel growled during the phone call, biting off Gendo's title with sarcastic emphasis, "You will not be having your way, _Rokubungi. _You will be stripped of your rank and privileges if you continue to interfere in things that do not concern you. Just use the weaponry provided and stop whining about your wife's reputation, or so help me, boy, I'll literally have you boned like a fish! Now get back to work and deal with the damn Angel before I arrive and deal with you!"

The fact that Keel had used Gendo's original family name meant that he was not kidding or simply mouthing off. Lorenz Keel was going to systematically destroy him in every sense of the word, and he was powerless to prevent should Keel drop his wrathful hammer. Things simply couldn't get any worse.

Gendo had no idea how completely wrong he was. Things could, and would, in fact, get very much worse, and he was going to have front row seats to all.

**Author's Notes: ****Well, after all these months, I've finally updated. I know the chapter isn't what people probably were hoping for, but I hope the twists I threw out were entertaining. I'll see you all again in "Round One: Fight! Fight! And Fight Some More!".**


	4. Round One, Part 1

**Disclaimer:** This is a work of fiction and all related material belong to Gainax Studios and Hideaki Anno, plus some material mentioned belongs to R.A. Salvatore. Anyway, I own nothing, only original characters created by me. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I have in presenting it you! Now on with the show!

**Author's Note's:** I forgot to mention the year the main story kicks off in (it's 2017, by the way). I agree with people who say that the Children are way too young to be thrown into combat situations so I age them a couple of years into their late teens.

Misato Katsuragi woke up with a horrendous headache, particularly centered directly at the base of Her skull. She was trying to remember what had happened when it hit her all at once; the Angel, picking up the strange boy and his companion, the N2 mine, their strange powers and then...nothing. She was snapped back to reality as she realized she was in the _back_ seat of her car with Shinji sitting right next to her, reading what looked like an American novel, and the truly bizarre Scotsman Dr. Gannon driving. She looked at the cover of Shinji's book, thankfully knowing enough English to read the title: "Gauntlgrym". _'What kind of a name is that?' _Misato thought, noticing two decidedly Elvish characters on the cover, locked in a duel, one of them, a woman, wielding a three parted BO-staff, the other, a dark skinned male, wielding a pair of scimitars, atop what looked like a huge statue falling over into a river of sloshing liquid fire. While it looked like an interesting book, Misato decide to let her presence be felt.

"Just what the _Hell_ is going on here? What _the Hell_ are you doing driving my _fucking_ car, you creep!" Misato's angry screech made both males jump, and almost caused Gannon to lose control of the car and crash into a light pole that was near the ramp for the train rails that there express car was arriving on. As Gannon expertly manoeuvred the Renault up the boarding ramp and onto the train car, he waited for the safety clamps to firmly lock the car to the train before he rounded on the angry Major.

"Now you listen here, Missy! I can understand you bein' a wee bit miffed about the headache and someone else drivin' yer car, but there was no need for shriekin' like some damned Banshee!" Gannon's unearthly eyes blazed an electric blue, and Misato was absolutely sure she saw the veins in his neck and face glow a lurid violet. She did not even want to contemplate asking about _that_, so she decided just to keep her mouth shut until they arrived at Nerv headquarters. The car accelerated smoothly thanks to being a mag-lev system, and soon they were heading downward deep beneath the surface. The amber lighting down the length of the tunnel made Shinji's equally strange eyes seem almost jade in colour. He seemed completely engrossed in his book, that was until Gannon spoke up and reverently whispered, "Now that, lad and lassie, is a fair sight prettier than some vistas I've seen in my days, I'll tell ye that now".

Shinji actually managed to tear his eyes away from his book to take a look out the back window. His face lit up with excitement as the spiralling train tunnel fell away to reveal an enormous artificial cavern. Misato smirked as the two angelic men became drawn to the vast structure they had entered.

"Gents, welcome to the Geo-Front. This is our fortress we built to protect mankind".

The artificial sunset produced by the mirror reflective walls of the massive structure was no less brilliant than the real thing, a vibrant amber and burnt orange glow, hued with hints of violet and streaks of yellow. The expansive forested area, complete with glassy calm lake that came with its own patrol vessel, made the whole experience seem almost magical, like something out of high fantasy, but the illusion was not so much broken, as slightly off-put, by the huge artificial pyramid centred in the middle of the Geo-Front. As the train car made a final circuit of the Geo-Front, both Shinji and Dr. Gannon truly began to appreciate how much effort had been put forward to combat the otherworldly invaders known as the Angels. They were adamant about making all this hard work and sacrifice pay off; they really had no choice.

Victory meant life

Defeat meant death.

They soon arrived at the receiving station and waited as the wheel locks were released before Dr. Gannon smoothly drove Misato's pirated Renault off the train car and headed for the secure underground parking garage. When they found an open space, the Renault swung into the space and screeched to a halt. The three passengers practically leaped out of the car and jogged to the nearest elevator and headed down to the main headquarters entrance. After passing through the electronic gate and arriving at one of the expansive bridge junctions, they headed straight for Command with a surreal sense of direction.

Misato had always gotten lost in these corridors, even after working here for the last two years, but Shinji and Dr. Gannon seemed to know exactly where they were going, even with Shinji looking through the Nerv Official Information packet Misato had been ordered to deliver to him and Gannon checking his PDA. Shinji had stashed his shiny new Nerv ID card in his jeans pocket, making an off-hand comment about his 'lame ass picture', and Gannon was going over notes on the 'exo-shell' he had been talking about on the phone with Ritsuko about. She got a few glimpses of what looked like schematics for the thing and had to admit, she was rather impressed; it looked like a heavily armoured, powered battle suit meant for an Evangelion. If this was the contested piece of equipment, why was its use being contested at all? It looked like it could kick the shit out of a whole naval battle group, for God's sake!

The young Captain began to realize that there was more going on here than simple professional rivalry; she had always known that the Commander had a very passionate attachment to anything that was a part of Project E; Whether it was the enigmatic Rei Ayanami or the ludicrously unstable Unit-01, the amount of concern and attention he showed to either, Misato reasoned, was entirely unhealthy. She snapped back to the present as she heard an elevator open. She realized that even though they hadn't gotten lost, that they were late and she had a good idea of who would be sent to meet up with the group. Who actually had shown up, was not who she had been expecting though.

"Maya? What's wrong? Where's Dr. Akagi?"

Lt. Maya Ibuki, Dr. Akagi's young protege had come to meet the group instead of her mentor. Why this was the case, Misato did not know but if the blonde doctor hadn't come to meet them in this particularly critical time, then something very wrong was going on. From the distressed look on young Maya's pretty face, Misato was certain her guess was quite close to the mark. As the young lieutenant composed herself, she wiped a tear from her eye with her uniform sleeve and answered, her voice quivering somewhat, "We have no idea where she is. Captain, she just up and disappeared. I paged her several times, even checking her office, the labs, the Eva cages, everywhere! Nothing, nada, zip, zilch! Its like she vanished into thin air!"

Maya's voice began to break as she finished by saying, "I just can't believe that Sempai was involved with some kind of espionage plot! She must have been coerced or something!" She partially broke down again and Misato took the young woman in a friendly, comforting hug. Dr. Gannon watched the whole display and felt like a heal for rubbing the missing doctor's face in her guilt of trying to sabotage his project. He had wanted her punished, yes, but like having her pay docked and put on probation, stuff like that. While actual jail time sounded darkly appealing, they were short on personnel and talent as it was. He had wanted her to earn back the trust she violated. Sadly, he had a _very _good idea about what had really happened to her, and _who _had made it happen to her.

His suspicions about Lorenz Keel and his shady doings had gone from silly and dismissible paranoia to full-blown, deep-rooted, evidence dripping conspiracy theory over the years he had come to know the enigmatic German. He had tried to give the man the benefit of a doubt, but he had seen the Instrumentality Chairman go perfectly Mengele when provoked even in the slightest, but he would react not out of anger or frustration, but because he seemed to enjoy hurting people. He had become the most dubious of the mysterious German during that whole nightmarish escapade in Las Vegas. If he ever found out that that man was responsible for all that misery, and it wouldn't have been such a stretch considering what had happened, Emil Gannon was going to run that ghoul through the heart with a sharpened telephone pole like a giant-sized wooden stake. Considering that Keel actually _had _fangs, it wasn't such a stretch of the imagination.

_'Someone had tried to make fancy bootleg spirits and narcotics using Angel DNA-contaminated water __from Antarctica! They thought irradiating it would kill off bacteria and left over Angel cells. That was such a recipe for disaster that there were bloody flashing neon warning signs going off! People got sick and died, but didn't stay dead, people got sick and turned into _bloody monsters!_ Some people simply changed into something...else'._

As Gannon thought back to the living nightmare that 'sin city' had turned into, he couldn't but help feel his blood boil and froth. The American government had 'dealt' with the problem, but instead of sending in quarantine teams and medical experts, they simply dropped a traditional tactical nuke right into the centre of it! Instead of the problem being 'dealt' with, the nuke had actually made things progressively worse. Now, what was left of Las Vegas was now sealed under a huge quarantine dome. Emil could still remember the perversely symmetrical array of a dozen glowing red eyes staring out at him from the translucent, heavily tinted carbon fibre-polycarbonate hybrid panels of the dome. Did those eyes belong to an animal that had somehow been changed by all the goings on, or did they belong to some poor soul whose only crime was falling into temptation.

_'Deliver us from evil, indeed'_, Dr. Gannon thought bitterly as he remembered those horrible times. He looked to Shinji and realized that the boy had been remembering those times as well. He had an expression of sadness and remorse for things Gannon knew were beyond his control and never were within his control to begin with. He and the boy shared some words through the unique psychic connection they had established.

"_Well, Sir, what do you think?"_

"_What I think, Shinji me lad, is that what we thought we knew about the goin's on at Nerv is nowhere near even half the picture, and what we don't yet know could fill up the bleedin' Great Lakes 'o' Canada!"_

"_That was a really beautiful Country, Canada. I hope we go visit it again when this is all over"._

"_Aye, Lad. I hope so too"._

As Dr. Gannon and Shinji finished their telepathic conversation, Misato and Maya had finished a normal one of their own, focusing on what had happened to Dr. Akagi and what they were going to do in the mean-time.

"Okay Maya. Right now, we have to focus on doing our jobs. When this Angel is toast, we're going to scour this whole rotten berg for her, understand? She would want us focusing on the task at hand". The Captain's voice was all business, firm and clear without overdoing it on force. That helped the young Lieutenant to compose herself quickly and dry her tears.

"Your right, Captain. We need to get this done now or there won't be a later. If everyone would board the elevator, we'll get Shinji to the Eva cages and get him prepped". As everyone boarded the elevator, the lieutenant turned to the Captain and asked, "So this is the boy?"

"Yes, according to the Marduk Report, he has been designated as the Third Child", Misato answered, nodding over her shoulder to the boy with strange eyes that Maya had seen accompanying the Captain on the way in. Every time Maya looked at those alien eyes, she felt a bone-deep chill run right up her spine. She knew she shouldn't judge people just because they were different from anybody else, but she just couldn't help it. He was probably a sweet young man, really, but those damn creepy eyes kept giving her the willies. She wondered how his eyes had wound up like that, but decided to put it aside for when the Angel was dead...if they could actually kill the thing, that is.

The Angel had already decimated every tank division and mobile armoured infantry unit they deployed against it, not to mention the JSSDF best fighter crafts and V/TOLS. They were running out of resources and personnel; if they kept throwing military assets at it, they'd have nothing left for the next engagement, if they made it that far, that is.

"So, is Unit-00 ready for sortie? Are the repairs finished?" Misato asked out of the blue. Maya shook her head sadly and said, "Sorry Captain, its going to be at least another three more months before its back in any sort of shape. We had no other resort but to initiate cryogenic thaw and emergency prep of Unit-01".

Shinji felt all of the air being sucked out of elevator car. He thought that not only had Unit-01 _already been_ thawed and prepped, but that it had been equipped with the highly contested exo-shell that Dr. Gannon and Dr. Carmine had jointly developed. Something about this stank, but before he could voice any kind of question, Dr. Gannon blew a gasket. His face flushed so deep a shade of red, so fast, that Shinji had honestly thought that the youthful looking Scotsman's head was going to explode.

"**What do ye mean by 'thaw' and 'prep'? All of that was supposed to have been done by the time myself and the boy got here, Missie! Oh, and let me guess, you never installed the adaptors for my exo-shell did you? The bloody 'Commander' didn't want his precious pet Evangelion unit all mussed up, did he now? The adaptors were specifically designed to directly connect to the Eva's ****nervous system and on-board neural circuitry so to facilitate a real time connection with the exo-shell's neural net! Not to mention actual physical performance enhancement! That Goddamn fool ****Ikari is goin' ta get us all killed!"**

Dr. Gannon was practically shrieking with rage, and the saucer-eyed look of fear on Maya's face, as well as Misato's face, was all the answer Gannon needed to confirm his worst suspicions. Shinji was equally angry, but he didn't want to go taking it out on anybody; well, except the bastard who had most likely given out marching orders.

_'Not to mention the SOB who tried to turn me into an emotional wreck'_, Shinji snarled to himself.

Chairman Keel had seen this coming a mile away. He had warned the both of them that Commander Gendo Ikari wasn't going to install one single upgrade of Dr. Gannon's design because he saw the Evangelion as a last remnant memento of his deceased wife, Shinji's mother, a Dr. Yui Ikari. The Commander treated the Evangelion as if it were something sacrosanct and not to be 'violated' as the Commander had so arrogantly put it, so Keel had told to Shinji. After that comment though, Keel and the rest of the Committee had set Gendo straight, or so they had thought.

When Keel found out about this, he was going to be livid. When Lorenz Keel got livid, somebody always went to hospital...or the morgue, depending on just how angry Keel was going to get. Shinji tried to get his Scottish mentor to calm down, knowing that Emil Gannon had a comparable temperament but thankfully not the sadistic streak, but unfortunately what he lacked in cruelty, he made up for in pure and simple explosive rage.

"W-we're installing your adaptors r-right now, Doctor Gannon. Chairman Keel o-over-ruled the Commander when he found out a couple of hours ago". If Shinji was hoping for some kind of good news to calm down his pissed-off mentor, this was it. Emil Gannon seemed to deflate like a balloon that just had all its air let out, and he looked rightfully abashed. He scratched the back of his head nervously, swearing under his breath, then saying aloud, "Ya know, I pay good money to see top-notch psychiatrists about this damn temper o'mine, but it ain't doin' a lick a good. I am truly sorry, Lass. Its all this stuff goin' on that's put me in a right foul mood, to be sure".

While the explosively temperamental Scotsman genuinely meant what he said, the two Nerv personnel were not so quick to believe him...especially since his face had seemingly morphed into something distinctly _not_ human. As Gannon looked to the other three people in the elevator, Shinji harshly whispered under his breath, "Doc, your _face_!"

Gannon had this same thing happen to him once before. He had become so perfectly angry as to undergo a physical change in his facial and cranial structure, and both times, he had not felt even a slight muscle cramp. He closed his eyes and concentrated on calming down. He remembered Keel's words about having to answer questions that they simply couldn't answer; well, at least not very readily. He tuned out Maya's panicked, rapid breathing and Misato's orders to drop to the floor and her clicking off the safety to a spare side-arm she had, even Shinji's emphatic pleas to leave Gannon alone and just calm down. In the time it took for the Scottish doctor to calm down, his face had returned to a distinctly human norm.

"Christ in Heaven, please tell me me face didn't look the way I thought it did, did it?" Was Emil's panicked whisper. His answer came in the form of Misato jamming her gun against the side of his face and snarling, "What the Hell do you think, _Angel_?" She was about to pull the trigger when Shinji jammed his own huge gun against her temple and spoke in a voice that was not of this world.

"_**Listen to me, very closely, you fucking bigot. What the First Angel did to you, and half the Human race, was terrible, and no one had any say in what was going to happen. SO guess what? Neither did Dr. Gannon and I have any say in our fates! We never asked for these creepy eyes and AT-Fields and all this other crap! We had it forced on us!"**_

Shinji was not at all happy. Misato had no idea what that would entail, but she really did NOT want to make him any angrier than he already was. What did he mean 'forced on us?' They were altered against their wills? Misato wondered if that were true or not, but if she voiced her doubts to the veracity of Shinji's claims, she was absolutely certain that he was going shot her point blank. He sounded genuinely angry, and from what she initially gauged about Dr. Gannon and Shinji, they both seemed like straight shooters, if not for being a bit on the loopy side. She decided to put her suspicions aside and look into things herself when Shinji snarled at her to make her focus on the present.

"_**Your so pissed-off at the Angels, that if anyone steps out of your idea of 'human', he or she automatically isn't! We've tried so hard to put a lid on all this creepy crap, but if you want to bitch and whine about it, fine! Go the fuck ahead! Just don't you EVER point a gun at the Doc ever again. If you do, I will consider you an enemy, and do you know what I do to an Enemy?"**_

Misato slowly shook her head from side to side and whispered, "No, I don't", too scared of the super-powered teenager to say anymore. Shinji smiled a smile composed of razor sharp teeth and not a single squared tooth in his head. He whispered in his normal voice, "You _really _don't want to know".

He whipped his gun back into its under-arm holster and took three steps back, crushing Misato's spare gun just as easily as Dr. Gannon had crushed her primary side-arm. Shinji kept giving Misato the evil eye, and both Misato and Maya stayed well away from the pissed off half-angel, practically leaping out of the elevator when they arrived at their destination. Shinji humphed as he walked past the two women, both of whom gave him a wide berth, and nervously smiling at Gannon, who looked like he had a head ache coming on, his face in his palm, mumbling under his breath.

Maya was the first to speak up after that bizarre and frightening episode.

"Captain, just what the Hell are those two?" She whispered nervously as Dr. Gannon caught up to Shinji and started talking to him quite sternly about watching his own temper, to which Shinji blatantly called Gannon a hypocrite, though not as seriously as Misato thought he might, but more in a playful dig manner. He also mentioned something about 'haggis', but whatever the comment, Gannon took it remarkably well, though he did smack Shinji in the head in a comical manner.

"Maya, I don't know", Misato began, "But as long as they both do the jobs we need them to do, I think we'll be okay".

Maya looked to her superior quite incredulously at that comment, but then Misato continued by saying, "Well, if they do decide to go ape shit and kill everybody, at least we have some idea of what to expect and act accordingly".

"How do we act 'accordingly', Ma'am?"

"Simple", Misato spoke with hands on hips and an odd smile.

"Yes?"

"Find a nice, dark corner, pray to God for a mercifully quick death, pee ourselves, and hope for the best!" Misato quipped, still smiling, even flashing the 'victory sign'. Maya, on the other hand, loosed her jaw and stared at her superior officer, her left eye-brow twitching in a rather alarming way.

"What the fuck is wrong with you...?" Maya deadpanned.

"I don't really know, now that you mention it!" Misato quipped again, not taking Maya's comment offensively, and still smiling. She now realized that Maya was quickly walking away from her, trying now to catch up to the volatile Half-Angels that had been apparently hired by Nerv to save the world from their big brothers.

Damn, she needed a beer... or something stronger.

The group had, after much shenanigans, finally arrived at the Eva cage for Unit-01. Shinji was checking out Unit-01 for himself before he got in, while Dr. Gannon was talking, rather calmly, to Lt. Ibuki about what his equipment was supposed to do.

The fully automated robotic arms that had been designed by both Doctors Gannon and Carmine had actually been installed in the cage several months before hand, but it was only with Chairman Keel threatening to revoke the Commanders authority permanently that really got things moving. Even before the adaptors were installed, the giant bio-mechanical monster had to go through some rather extensive upgrades so it could actually make maximum use of the enhancements the adaptors would provide. Fortunately, the robotic service arms weren't the only hardware addition to the Eva cage. Exotic looking equipment was arranged behind and above the Eva on either side near its huge shoulders, directly above its head, and two rather substantially large machines were positioned on the walls to the Eva's left and right, with the last one, reminiscent of a preachers pulpit, rising from the floor with its top just emerging from the artificial lake of LCL.

Sections of Unit-01's brilliant royal purple armour, including the shoulder mounts and pylons, had been precisely removed and placed out of the way on enormous racks along the walls, the robotic arms travelling along the lengths of the ceiling via motorized rails built into it, making Misato think of a high-tech department store or warehouse. Giant-scale injector guns – minus the grips and triggers – held aloft by more robotic arms were busy injecting the enormous living war machine with a variety of high-tech concoctions, all designed to augment the Eva's already remarkable abilities, and to facilitate the various upgrades, one of which to Gannon's happy surprise had been already complete.

"Well now, the on-board MAGI support computer that I designed to install into Unit-01 is already installed! A happy surprise, ta be sure! When did ye install it, lassie? Did it right to spec and spot on! Well Done!" Gannon announced to Lt. Ibuki as she showed him her PDA which displayed all of the work the technical and maintenance crews had done installing all the servicing equipment, not to mention using the equipment almost right away by installing the next-gen quantum computer successor to the original computers designed by both Dr. Naoko Akagi, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi's mother, and the younger Akagi herself.

Maya smiled at Dr. Gannon's findings and compliment. He wasn't so bad after all, she thought, just really..._unique_. She had marvelled at the designs for the on-board version of the MAGI computers used by Nerv headquarters. The whole concept of the MAGI had been overhauled and re-envisioned by the two foreign scientists. Rumour had it that Keel himself had been apart of the team who had created this incredible computer system.

It was like someone took the concept of the MAGI, then stripped it down to its core and rebuilt it from the ground up, expanding on existing concepts, implementing radical new ones, and even allowing for genuine growth and mutation in the force-grown bio-neural net. This one single MAGI unit made ALL of the others seem antiquated and slow by comparison. It took Maya back that they were installing such a revolutionary device into a war machine; it even frightened her a bit. She had never in her entire life, even when working with her beloved mentor, had ever been exposed to technological sophistication of this level.

"_Does being half angel", _she wondered, _"mean your smarter than a regular person?"_

It would make sense to her, at least, after reading a comprehensive report on 'The Incident' that had almost killed over a hundred people, but had instead, and quite literally, transformed them. The classified report that Maya had accessed told of the altered people as having so staggeringly massive growth in mental faculties, there simply was no comparison to what they were before. The Captain had read the same report, which was why she was now constantly weary of the two 'Nephilim'. She could understand what happened had not been their fault, but what they were now could still pose a fatal security risk if they ever lost control of themselves. For all intensive purposes, they had become the enemy in at least one sense of the word, and it scared the hell out of her.

While that fear was prevalent, Misato knew that these two unusual guys were, right now, the only chance to get a win in this first round of what had been dubiously named 'The Angel Wars'. Misato wanted to go find the people who came up with these wacky names and classifications and smack them all silly. She agreed with the younger Ikari that giving these 'space monsters' as he had called them, such emotionally and theologically evocative names was going to inspire all the loons to go all 'doomsday cult' on everybody.

She had already heard reports of mass suicides by regular folks who had, as a group, been convinced they had no hope left in this world but that salvation would be theirs in the next. One particular report got her ire up good and proper as it detailed the 'spiritual leader' of one of these suicide groups conning all participants to leave them entire estates to him.

He had them all take arsenic-laced soda pop, but his drink had been conveniently absent of the deadly poison. He had amassed a relatively sizable fortune over night. When authorities caught on, thanks to a surprising smart senior citizen who lost a son to the creep and had infiltrated one of his 'missions', the families of the deceased became incensed. The police never caught the guy because, after the _families of his victims_ had caught up to him, there wasn't even so much as a pinky finger left.

On a related note, the relatives were never charged with the murderous con mans death.

It seemed to the Captain that their was still a shred a good left in the world (as well as comeuppance), and now that they had a weapon with which to fight this powerful aggressor and protect it. She smiled to herself as she quietly listened in to all the up-grades that Unit-01 was receiving at the moment.

The new on-board Magi Mark-2, which would coincidentally augment a pilots natural Synch ratio, their level of connection to the bio-mechanical super weapon, would actually provide real-time strategic analysis of the enemy and provide unbiased advice for how to efficiently dispatch the target. Battle telemetry, enemy movements, analysis of abilities and tactics, patterns in behaviour, all was converted from a highly compressed digital format into a format the human mind could readily absorb and understand. The computer could speed up reaction times, even expand the pilots existing faculties well beyond the human norm, essentially giving their brains quantum-processing level speed of thought, greatly expanded and accurate short- and long-term memory, vastly superior levels of intuition and greatly sharpened instincts, etc.

As the pilot synched with the Evangelion, they would also synch with the on-board MAGI system which would, in turn, augment their connection to the Eva. Basically an exponential synchronization system, to put it simply.

It blew Misato's mind that such a device actually existed; she had even heard - quite hush-hush from Dr. Gannon himself – that the Magi Mark-2 had a very special characteristic...it was directly interfaced, somehow, with Unit-01's core. She remembered his description of the unique power this would grant to the pilot quite vividly in her minds eye, and couldn't wait for the time when it would be deployed.

"_The power to trigger the dreaded 'Berserker' ability of the Evangelion...whenever you want to, and to be able to _AIM _it. To be, quite literally, master of the beast within". _

The nasty grin on Misato's face would have worried anyone had they been paying attention to her, but she made sure that she put on a professional face when anyone turned her way. '

_'No sense in trying to put a personal face to this. Everyone needs to see a professional, not some angry woman looking for payback...but that is what I am. This is what I WANT. I WANT REVENGE! Now, thanks to Shinji and his shape-shifting mentor, I can finally begin to even the score and fight back for everybody whose lost somebody...I can get some payback for you, Dad'._

As Misato psyched herself up for the coming engagement, Gannon had begun a procedure that was going to give the Eva an incredible advantage. The first of Gannon's bizarre mixtures was what he referred to as a 'nano-assembler matrix suspension fluid'. After the blank look that Misato gave the volatile scientist, he chuckled deeply and gave her an explanation she could understand.

"Ye see, Captain, here's the story. The fluid I just described, which has now been fully injected into Unit-01, is going to help armour the Eva's skeleton. Specially designed nanites suspended in a complex nutrient supplement are going to be taking the large doses of heavy metals we've begun injecting into it, and recombine molecular structures to produce a very sturdy alloy me and the lads back in the U.S. whipped up. When the alloy is ready, it'll be bonded to the Eva's skeleton, making allowances for the pores in the bone marrow centres, allowing blood components to exit the marrow, so not impacting Unit-01's long term, err, health. The nanites themselves actually integrate into the skeletal armouring so they can make real-time changes if necessary, as well as help fuse the armour to the bone itself so to become a part of the bone, to anchor it. The unpredictable is a part of life, so best double-up on everything".

Misato thought she was going to have a migraine.

As incredible as it all sounded, it was also so far over her head with all the science stuff, that she thought her brain was going to overload. She did manage to keep up enough to ask a follow-up question.

"Wouldn't the skeletal armouring make the Eva harder to move. You know, more weight, harder on the joints, less speed?"

Gannon gave her a knowing chuckle. He smiled as he called up a schematic on his digital tablet and began to explain how that problem had been addressed.

"Any other day, Lass, you'd be spot on, but we came up with some wee bit sneaky ideas for dealin' wit dat particular problem before it became one. Now, first of all, we needed to make sure that the cartilage in all the joints could first handle the weight to start. We came up with a bio-polymer, basically a living plastic, derived from the Evangelion's own cartilage itself, so no immune system rejection. Now, this is supposed to give it way more compressive and tensile tolerances, without compromising flexibility. Any other method for joint enhancement, short or putting in an artificial joint, simply wouldn't work in the way we need it to".

"See, the collagen that makes up cartilage, which is both a connective tissue and lubricating feature to keep bones from grinding together, is stiffer than muscle tissue, but more flexible than bone, and even the cartilage tissue of an Evangelion is remarkably similar to our own, but decidedly more durable than our own, simply because of the size of the original life-form the Eva's were based on. Even so, adding metallic plating to even these giant-sized bones could cause rapid and severe cartilage damage. The bio-polymer makes the Eva's cartilage not only more damage resistant in the first place, it will augment its ability to recuperate by a factor of over seventeen times the norm fer this big beastie.

"Normal cartilage doesn't have blood vessels, which means it heals slower than other body tissues. The bio-polymer matrix actually forms artificial blood vessels in the cartilage, then connecting the artificial blood vessels to the Eva's circulatory system, allowing it to make use of the Eva's remarkable healing abilities at the same pace that the others tissues do".

Misato was decidedly impressed with Gannon's work, and smiled herself as she realized he was far from done. He tapped his tablet a few more times and brought up schematics for his new adaptors. The adaptors were surgically installed into the shoulders, biceps, fore-arms, back of the hands, several points on the chest, each and every vertebrae, thighs, shins, and instep of both feet. The adaptors, after being physically fused with the now armoured bones, would disgorge masses of nano-filaments. Half of all the filaments would either mesh and weave themselves into Unit-01's nervous system or connect to each other, allowing the adaptors to communicate with each other in real-time. All the adaptors have primary connections that interface with the on-board MAGI Mark-2, allowing the powerful quantum computer to oversee the connection between the Eva and the new exo-shell it would be equipping.

The other half of the filaments would be playing a different role. Since they were already connected to the other filaments, that was one less function they needed to perform. The remaining half of the filaments were in fact long chains of remarkably power nano-machines integrated into one another, essentially creating a muscle-fibre simulating robotic device than would operate the same way living muscle did. The filaments would essentially mesh with the musculature, and by doing so, make the Evangelion up to sixteen times stronger!

All of these incredible breakthroughs, and the speed with which they were being installed into the purple behemoth astounded Misato. She could only hope that these same breakthroughs could get a kill for their side in the Angel Wars. She was shaken from her thoughts as when she heard Shinji excitedly called out to Dr. Gannon.

"Doc! The skeletal enhancements are done, and the adaptors are now integrated. It'll be about a minute for full neural net-webbing and musculature augmentation to finalize. Actually, make that about thirty-five seconds! Damn, I love this stuff! I can't wait to get out there and kick some ass. HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!"

As Shinji broke into a maniacal cackle, both adults felt beads of sweat run down the back of their heads, nervously smiling at Shinji's antics. The crews simply shrugged and went about here business like nothing was out of place or unusual; then again, considering they were fighting 'angels' for the sake of humanity, using giant cyborgs as weapons, piloted by teenagers (apparently crazy ones, but what teenager isn't a little nutty), so who were they to say what was normal and what wasn't?

"Can we please get back to the task at hand?" A deep voice boomed from above.

All sense of play disappeared as Nerv's supreme commander finally made his appearance, slowing panning his view around the cage from the prinbow box above, not liking what he was seeing being done to Unit-01 in the slightest. While he no longer had any control of what changes could and could not be done, he would not simply sit by and let some idiot foreigner destroy his hopes of reuniting with his beloved Yui again. He almost snarled as the numuerous robotic arms began replacing Unit-01's dismatled armour, replacing it from where it was taken from and welding it back together, leaving not even a seam or mark to show any kind of work had been done, all of it polished to a mirror shine. All of the tubes and cabling attached to the Eva were disconnected and swiftly returned to the equipment they were attached to, no longer needed now that the core work had been completed; the on-board Magi System would handle the rest.

One day, Gendo swore to himself, he'd have all of Gannon's trash taken out of the cherished Evangelion, and then he'd deal with the platinum-blonde ass himself. He caught his sons eyes, hoping to cow the boy pre-emptively, but the sight of his sons alien eyes openly unnerved the usually cold and stoic man. He sneered as Shinji spoke up, "Unit-01 has been upgraded as per Chairman Keel's instructions sir. Clear to proceed?"

Whatever response Gendo could have planned for, this was certainly not it, not even close. Shinji's response was focused on the task at hand, all business. Gendo had expected everything from a timid introvert to a loud and boisterous extrovert; not a calm and unassuming young man with those bizarre eyes. He recovered quickly from his surprise and confusion, barking out, "Evangelion Unit-01 is to sortie immediately!"

"Well, its about bloody time!" Dr. Gannon mumbled under his breathe as he checked his tablet again, seeing that all of Unit-01's enhancements were now finished and were now connecting to the on-board MAGI-2. System checks were occurring at a break-neck pace, being halfway done already. By the time the Evangelion was loaded onto the launch catapult and sent on its way, system checks would be done and all of the new systems would come completely on-line.

Shinji had opened a vacuum-sealed bag he had been given by Gannon, which contained the specialized operations suit to be used by all evangelion pilots, the 'plug suit'. Shinji's suit was predominantly blue, with white shoulders and upper body plating, what looked like stylized white greives on his legs, and with matching guantlets on his arms. The whole look of the plug suit had a more 'body armour' look to it than other plug suits did, denoting the possibility of even more high-tech tools that Dr. Gannon came up with to help Shinji do his job. Shinji whipped off his long coat and quickly slipped out of his shoulder holsters and passed them to a mechanic who had been roped into playing 'butler'. Shinji climbed down from the evangelion and quickly jogged down the catwalk and out of sight as he changed out of his normal clothes into this suit.

Just when Shinji came back into sight, there was a thunderous BOOM that reverberated throughjout the cage and sent the whole place to quake. A support beam along the ceiling, along with some of the ceiling itself, came loose and plumeted down. Tech and mechanics alike jumped into the LCL lake to avoid being crushed; Gannon threw up his AT-Field around Maya and himself, debris harmlessly bouncing off the honey-comb patterned energy field. Shinji did the same, but he need not have bothered.

There was suddenly a sound like metal being torn and twisted and Evangelion Unit-01's enormous arm shot up out of the LCL like a bullet, blocking the majority of the heavier debris. Shinji had instinctively ducked, but when he looked up, he saw the Eva's huge arm raised above him like a great shield.

He smiled warmly at the save and whispered, "Thanks, Mom", quietly enough so that he went unheard by all. He straightened up, and was able to reach up and affectionately pat the armoured limb. He ran to everyone to make sure they were okay, noticing Maya's deer-in-the-headlights look at what Unit-01 just did, all without power or a pilot. He was glad that everyone seemed okay, and with a nod from the good Doctor, he jumped up to the huge shoulder of the Evangelion and climbed into the open Entry Plug and sat down into what Chairman Keel had dubbed the 'Throne of Souls' and tried to get confortable.

The locks in his suit slide into the ports in the seat with oiled ease, clamping solid with a sound disturbingly resonate of a heavy pump-action shot gun being cocked. The wearable quantum computer that was his plug suit booted up in seconds, and soon was connected to the on-board MAGI-2, which itself was now on-line and running through system checks. A component of Shinji's suit that really made it stand out from other suits on the outside was a holographic display visor - connected to the main suit through a USB cable - which actually projected system stats right into his eyes without obscuring his vision. He could feel a cold-water splash-like sensation in his head, and most importantly felt his senses begin to expand outward and through the huge bio-mech and all its sensory systems.

As Shinji's mind and the revolutionary bio-quantum computer began to interact, and both began to connect to the Evangelion, Shinji checked the status of all of the up-grades; the skeleton armouring and bonding was finally complete, the adaptors were now fully connected to the on-board neural net and living nervous system equally and fully on-line, and both were now perfectly interfaced with the MAGI-2. Every single thing that had been done to ready Unit-01, at least for right now, had been done. Shinji had talked with Dr. Gannon, who was now on the hunt for the actual exo-shell; it was in Japan, it was in Tokyo-3, and more specifically, it actual was on base. Now they just had to pin down _where _on base it was. Shinji had a sinking feeling that his loathesome parent had simply ordered the exo-shell dismantled and stored its parts in different areas of the base.

Chairman Keel was going to put two rounds in Gendo's head to be sure. Shinji just hoped that he'd be there to see it; or, even better, the one to _do _it. Shinji had found out from Keel all of his so-called father's dirty dealings and doings; he even found out about his role in Second Impact. Shinji hoped that his father would survive the Angel Wars, just he could put him out of the worlds misery himself.

He felt the soul within the Eva recoil somewhat at his angry and vividly dark thoughts, but Shinji calmly explained to it, or more precisely, to _her_, that Gendo had caused so much damage, to the world, to peoples lives, and to Shinji and practically the whole Ikari family with what he did. He knew about Gendo's plan to try to reunite with Yui, who now was a part of Unit-01, and vowed to stop him. Death was one option, but Shinji wasn't about to kill his own father just to settle up; he understood how bad those vengeful thoughts were, but after what gendo did to him, he reasoned, how could he not wish the wretched man harm?

While the spirit of Yui Ikari was not one bit pleased withj how dark her son's mind had become, she also saw so much good that had been tarnished by horrible memories and so much emotional and psychological pain. She was glad that Shinji could, for whatever reason, not synch with her with a percentage of 400%, because if he could, while avoiding fully being absorbed by Unit-01 himself, he would be able to connect to _her _deepest, darkest memories. If that happened, she might as well die completely, because Shinji would absolutely reject her and everything to do with her.

She found she could interact with Unit-01's new equipment directly, but only somewhat. She found the new equipment extraordinary, but something odd caught her eye. Yui found several folders in the master directory detailing schematics for the new systems, which were to be used by the self-repair system, something code-named 'morphix'. While that sounded quite intriging, Yui discovered something rather unnerving, and if she still had a stomach, it be doing flip-flops; there were schematics for Shinji's plug suit in a particularly prominant folder. She further explored the contents of the folder and discovered that in fact Shinji could easily max-out the 400% synch ratio needed to merge with Unit-01, but his plug suit has specially designed limiters that kept him from breaching that terrible threshold.

Yui learned of her son's extraordinary enhancements, and how they came about. She almost screamed in horror despite lacking any way to make an audible sound of any kind, at what had been created, even accidently, and prayed to God that somebody was using their common sense and got rid of the potentially catatrosphic Frankenstein mix that had been created during this so-called 'Incident'. How could any scientist in their right mind not see the tremendous harm this 'hybrid material' could cause. As she continued to peruse the files, she found a surprisingly small file for something supposed to be in themaster directory. She opened it, but found it to be hand-penned note digitally scanned to a file. What the note said, however, concerned her quite a bit.

It simply read: "I know what you did to that boy, to your husband, to the _entire _human race. You will suffer for it when this conflict is concluded"

"P.S. _Go fuck yourself!"_

Yui had no idea what to think about that. One the one hand, she was greatly frightened that someone knew of her plans for the future, but on the other hand, what sort of juvenile would write that vulgar warning note?

Dr. Gannon sneezed so loudly, he made everybody in the command centre jump. The long-haired Shigeru Aoba handed the Scottish scientist a hankerchief as he sat down at his station. Dr. Gannon sneezed again into the hankerchief, and after wiping his nose, grumbled "...the Hell was that? I haven't had the sniffles since I was a lad".

"No worries, Doc. My mom once said that it means that somebody is thinkin' about you", Shigeru responded. Dr. Gannon smiled at the quip, then turned to the massive holographic main display screen that dominated the forward wall of the command centre which showed Unit-01 being loaded onto a transport elevator that would take the armoured titan up to street level where the Angel was, for what ever reason, simply standing in an intersection, its lanky arms crossed over its grotesque chest like it was waiting for someone or something and wasn't very happy about it in the first place.

"What the fuck is it waiting for? An engraved invitation?" Shinji's sarcastic question went unanswered as Unit-01's support frame was finally locked into the elevator, the mag-lev coils whining up to sufficient charge to launch the huge mech on its way. The entire bridge crew were similarly curious, even more so when the they noticed the Angel tapping one of its clawed digits against its arm, as though it were becoming impatient and its huge bony shoulders rising and falling as though it were heaving a great sigh.

Shinji looked at the video images holographically displayed on the inside of the plug a skance and grumbled, "Eager for an ass-kicking? Happy to oblidge, you over-grown bastard!" He focused his eyes ahead as the bridge crew ran through the check list before deployment

"Preparing First stage: Activating System. A-10 Nerve linkages connected"

"Approaching borderline in four...three...two...one...borderline achieved".

"Prepping second stage: initiating LCL ionization. Setting Plug depth".

"Second stage successful. Plug depth set. Preparing Third stage activation".

"Ready for third stage activation in three...two...one...full activation successful. Synchronization holding at...uhm, what the Hell?"

Maya had been the one to make the unprofessional comment. Shigeru and his colleague Makoto Hyuga looked over at Maya's console to see what had made her respond like that. Shigeru responded by whistling loud and long, while Makoto was incredulous, "Okay, now that is _impossible!_"

Shinji's synchronization level was well over 300%.

As everyone stared at the synch ratio, then at Shinji's smirking image, Gendo couldn't help but stare bug-eyed at the same synch reading on his own console. He ever so slowly stood to his feet, his veneer of calm and control going right out the window. He now realized just how powerful a pilot Keel had made his son into, and also realized how far from human his son was, as Shinji's alien eyes were softly glowing, every vein glowing with a electric blue light. He winked at his father as he took notice of the commander, and waved at Gendo's immediate subordinate, Kouzo Fuyutsuki, Deputy Commander of Nerv. Shinji had learned from Keel that the Deputy Commander was actually not only trust-worthy, but a genuinely likeable fellow. Shinji hoped he made it out of this fight in one piece, because he wanted to talk to Fuyutsuki about his mother and how he had mentored her so long ago (and why the Hell he never stopped his mother from marrying a bastard like his dad).

Misato addressed Shinji, all traces of flirtation and joking absent.

"Pilot Ikari, are you ready to sortie? How's Unit-01 holding up?"

"Ready and eager, Ma'am! Let me at 'um!"

"Good to hear, Pilot. All systems are green! Okay..."Misato paused for dramatic effect, completely unable to keep it professional at the last moment.

"**EVA LAUNCH!"**

Shinji felt himself being pressed into his seat by the G-Forces exerted on the Eva by the Mag-Lev elevator. He had actually ridden in a fighter jet before, as a away to prep him for the G-Force that he'd be slammed with. He'd actually enjoyed it then, and he still loved it now. He could feel a powerful adrenaline rush as he readied himself to face the Angel, but suddenly he felt a _very _familiar sensation. He felt as though someone who had been changed like him was nearby. Okay, not nearby, per se, but in the general area, and getting closer _very _quickly.

He also keep hearing something that sounded like radio chatter, but he couldn't hear anything over the noise of the Mag-Lev. When the elevator hard jerked to a stop, giving Shinji a small case of whiplash, for which he mouthed off about immediately, as well as threatening the designers virtue, Shinji got a very clear listen to the radio chatter. Misato was arguing with a particularly loud American, who Shinji recognized immediately.

"Listen to Me, you whack-job yankie! You absolutely cannot flyer a mega-carrier plane over a civilian population centre! Change course or we will shoot you down!"

The American responded in a gruff bass-rumble that sounded older than the owner appeared on screen. The face was that of a man in his late twenties, almost ghostly pale skin, rusty red hair, and a ruggedly handsome face, finished with a mischievious smile that he was certain was getting Misato flustered.

Shinji's already unnaturally pale skin went completely white as he heard what Dr. Joseph Carine said next: "Darlin', that actually sounds like a heap of fun! Hope your gunners got good aim, cause here I come! Hey Shinji, give that ugly sonuvabitch a working class ass-kickin'!"

Carmine concluded his transmission with a savage roar of "YIPPIE-KIYAY, MOTHER FUCKER!" harking back to a beloved action movie of his from the eigthies.

"Jesus H. Christ, He's gonna do it!" Gannon practically screamed as he realized his American counterpart was just as crazed as he remembered. He hoped Shinji killed the target before his looney American mentor started another world war.

As the entire command centre began to panick as the enormous airplane began to swoop in, Shinji saw the Angel uncross its arms and look down at something near its feet. Shinji ignored Misato hasty command to kill the enemy and zoomed in on the ground right by the Angels huge left foot. What he saw made his blood go cold.

A pair of police officers were shooting at the Angel as they tried to escort a family of three to safety. The Angel seemed to consider the fleeing humans with curiousity, then Shinji felt his heart seize up as the black flesh that was visible through the Angel's bone mask seemed to crinkle up, like when someone smiles quite widely. Its eyes narrowed in a perverse kind of mirth, then snapped wide open as they flashed a bloody red.

"_NNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

Shinji's anguished cry made everybody freeze and they focused on what the magnified image on screen now showed them; a small crater and a tiny scattering of what used to be people were now littering the ground. Shinji saw what was left of a young child's corpse splattered against the murderous alien's ankle like a grotesque play on a cartoon gag. His eyes were now so huge, Misato and the bridge crew all thought they were going to pop out his skull entirely.

"Oh, God! Shinji! Those people..."Misato began to say, but she couldn't finish through small sobs that escaped her lips. Shigeru and Makoto grimaced at the sight, and poor Maya fell out of her seat to the floor and outright vomited. Dr. Gannon felt he wanted to charge out of base, run up to street level and tear the abomination apart with his bare hands.

He needn't have worried about it.

The beastial roar that followed was so loud, it scared everyone to attention and drew their focus away from the barbaric act perpetrated by the monstrous being. Everybody sucked in a huge breath at what they saw.

Shinji's face had ceased to be human, more resembling what Dr. Gannon had morphed into. His eyes now burned with a savage red light, his mouth a den of razor sharp teeth, and tears could be seen at the corners of his wicked eyes, the visor removed and thrown aside. Shinji, or whatever he had turned into spoke in an otherworldly growl, just like the one he had used with Misato. There was one key difference though.

He was enraged.

"_**You like killing people you Goddamn space monster?"**_

There was no way to mistake the murderous look of intent of Shinji's monstrous new face.

He roared his challenge for all the world to hear.

"_**TRY KILLING ME!"**_

Evangelion Unit-01 seemed to croutch down as though it was tired, but Dr. Gannon noticed something that made his blood go frigid in his veins; brilliant white light was beginning to seep out of Unit-01's upper chest area, right where the MAGI-2 had been installed. Gannon had hoped to perform more testing before they deployed the aptly named berserk system, and since the MAGI-2 used the pure First/Second Angel hybrid DNA to grow its bio-circuitry, there was really no telling what the unique power of the hybrid DNA would grant to the quantum bio-computer installed in the titanic war machine.

Gannon hade never wanted to develop a system for actively triggering the dreaded berserker power, but Chairman Keel had been unusually inflexible. He now realized he should never have used the hybrid DNA to such an extent in the bio-computer, becasue its unique power had suddenly began to affect Unit-01 in ways even Gannon had not foreseen.

Going from a very lithe, almost boney physique to a Herculean physique was one such example.

The entire Evangelion softly radiating that colidascope energy field was another.

Taking off like a rocket, destroying its cradle with the force of its take-off, and smashing the ugly behemoth it faced with so hard an ungodly powerful pile-driver of a punch that caused what passed for one of its now-two heads to explode were several more examples.

As the purple war machine snapped the bindings on its menacing mouth, it too roared a roar of unadulterated rage, its own teeth reminiscent of a Tyranosuarus Rex's teeth then the squared human teeth Gannon thought it would have. The angular tooth-shaped mouth plates made the coonstructs savage snarl look even more menacing, its hateful glare all the more profound. It straightened to its full height as its opponent went flying well over many of the buildings that had not yet been lowered into protective bunkers.

It completely missed them in fact.

That should not have happened.

What did happen was the nightmarish creature stopped in mid-air, righted itself, and faced Unit-01, and then did something no one would have believed it could do.

It audibly spoke aloud.

"**Well, now, that was quite the start! Shall we play?" **

It spoke calmly and with genuine amusement, even arrogance as it regenerated its shattered second face. It crossed its arms again in an arrogant show of fearlessness even as Shinji chuckled wickedly in his terrifying other voice.

"_**You want to play, asshole?"**_

The two monstrous titans readied for another go, and then suddenly sprang so fast, even Nerv's high-speed camera's almost missed it.

"_**Let's Play!"**_

**Author's Notes:** Well, sir! This one was a hum-dinger to get out, especially since my computer died when I was almost done righting this chapter _in the first place! _Anyway, I hope everybody enjoyed this chapter. To those who did, give me a shout! To those who didn't, please give me some advice on what to fix for next time! Get ready for "Round One, Part 2: Play Time of The Gods". Later!


	5. Round 1, Part 2: Playtime of The Gods

**Disclaimer:**Studio Gainax and Hideaki Anno own Neon Genesis Evangelion and all related characters. I own all original characters and plot elements. Please don't sue me, 'cause I'm barely able to pay back student loans as it is. Anyway, one with the show! I present to you "Round 1, Part 2: Playtime of the Gods".

Captain Misato Katsuragi, Operations Director for Nerv-01 in Japan could have never in a million years have ever anticipated what was now going on on the surface relayed to the command centre's huge holographic main screen via observation camera's placed discreetly throughout Tokyo-3. She had witnessed Shinji's horrid transformation into a monstrous version of himself that reminded her of an Evangelion without the armour, with the long boney limbs and almost skeletal physique, the brownish-purple skin, those horrible eyes of his practically bulging out of his now-inhuman skull, and even a blood curdling roar issuing from his vaguely saurian mouth which was filled with razor sharp teeth. The Angel engaging Unit-01 had actually spoken aloud after killing a small handful of civilians which sent Shinji into a murderous rage, which his foreign mentor Dr. Emil Gannon had explained caused his transformations.

Misato had read up on the so-called 'Incident', but many details had remained heavily classified. Dr. Gannon, while forbidden by executive order from the United Nations security council, as well as the Instrumentality Committee, could give her a bare bones explanation as to why Shinji and he suffered those terrifying transformative episodes.

"Oh, God...all of that happened in Las Vegas? No wonder you guys get so angry! If all of that happened to me, I don't think I would be able to be anything _but angry_! Also no wonder why you guys tried to avoid talking about it!" Misato turned to the Scotsman with a saddened look in her chocolate brown eyes, but he waved off her concern, a sad smile pulling at his lips.

"Aw, don't be worryin', Lass. Me and the boy made it out, as did Chairman Keel and My lunatic Yankee buddy, Dr. Carmine. I'll tell ya one thing though; if I ever lays me hands on the bastards that caused all that misery, somebody is gonna get Me boot right their friggin' arse!"

"Chairman Lorenz Keel was with you guys?" a surprised Misato asked, somewhat incredulous.

"Aye, indeed he was. Right now, though, I think we should be focusin' on this fight!"

Indeed they should, Misato thought as Unit-01 shot toward the Angel with such force, that its support frame was destroyed by the resultant shock-wave, and with such speed, the high-speed cameras actually missed it. Shinji's hideously transformed face was a richtous of savage rage, while the Angel's mask-like face seemed to ripple and morph, changing ever-so slightly. Misato wondered if the thing had some new trick up its slimy sleeve. She had read reports of the alien actually catching a ballistic missile with its bare appendage, pumping up like The Incredible Hulk, and then bisecting the missile with a violet energy beam it fired from an organic lens centred in its palm.

The weird light seeping out from between the seems of Unit-01's chest armour had a bizarre energy signature that not only was so completely alien that it could not be identified, but also was so intense as to defy categorization, but yet the intensity was enough to fry every single high-tech scanning device Nerv possessed but said system destruction wasn't occurring; in fact, electrical devices of every sort and shape were actually performing far above the norm _due to _the strange energy.

Misato guessed that this incredible energy was a key secret to Dr. Gannon's MAGI-2 on-board computer system. Something about that system wasn't just changing Unit-01, but the enemy as well, and the enemy very well knew it! From the dismayed look on the Scotsman's face, he knew it too, and didn't like it one bit, and from the equally dismayed groaning he was doing, he had never wanted this particular effect to occur in the first place.

"Why in the bloody Hell did I ever use the Transcendence Material as the base for the nervous tissue in the bio-neural circuitry? I should have just used it to help grow the nerve tissue, not grow nerve tissue _from it!_" Gannon snarled underneath his breath as he watched the fight between the empowered Evangelion and the hideous Angel escalate.

The two monstrous titans slammed into each other with enough force to generate a concrete-pulverizing spherical shock-wave. It spread out in an instant, shattering glass, ripping apart asphalt and masonry equally leaving dark powdery soot, crushing even sturdy metal bracing like it was thin tin. The heavily armoured buildings that hadn't been lowered into protective bunkers had actually fared quite well, coming out of the shock-wave with a few minor dents and scrapes.

Both of the Angels clenched grasping appendages, more three-digit claws than hands, slammed into Unit-01's armoured stomach while Unit-01 introduced its right fist to the still intact primary face of the Angel. Unit-01's stomach armoured was cracked and dented extensively by the powerful blow, but the Angel's primary face fared no better, as it exploded like an over-ripe fruit being smashed with a sledge hammer. The two combatants were each blown away by the impact of the blows. The Angel slammed against the rooftop of a large warehouse that didn't submerge into a protective bunker due to it being ready to condemn, rolled off, and unceremonious flopped onto the street behind the building. Unit-01, however, landed on its feet and skidded backward down a long street for several blocks until it smashed against a rather high office building that was in the process of getting its bunker hydraulics fixed, ergo why it had not been lowered into said bunker. It actually knocked over the building and landed on top of it, fully collapsing the front of the skyscraper like a gigantic sofa cushion, minus the cushioning effect.

Within the entry plug, Shinji felt his ribs crack when the Angel had initially punched his Evangelion and now they were outright broken; more like crushed into gravel, from Shinji's point of view. He decided to replace his visor and tried to calm himself, knowing that angry people made foolish mistakes, but he really didn't want to calm down; he wanted total and brutal violence done upon the horror movie reject who felt inclined to murder five innocent people right in front of him. He realized that a lot more people than that had already died, and many more were soon to follow if Shinji didn't get his act together. He ignored the pain and began to focus, having to repeat the mental process as he psychically popped his ribs back into alignment.

Each time he did it it felt like being kicked by an angry mule from the inside-out.

He had to repeat the procedure eighteen times.

His Nephilim healing abilities would take care of the rest, aided thankfully by his suits built-in medical suite. Pain killers were injected directly into his blood stream, stimulants followed which would further speed the healing. He heard an eerie kind of growl, like a mixture of howling winds and an entire pack of angry wolves growling all at the same time. He pushed his Eva into a sitting position, then quickly got into a crouch. He realized that while the Angel was down he could finish it off, but from the sounds he heard, it was now either back on its feet and murderously angry, or getting to its feet and murderously angry. Shinji almost immediately heard the sound of huge, slowly advancing footsteps, followed by a hideous howl of rage, and guessed it was option number one.

Shinji realized that the Transcendence Material's unique radiation was escaping from the MAGI-2, and when he quickly checked the MAGI-2 schematics and compared them to what had actually been installed into the Evangelion, his blood boiled anew. The innocuous and relatively unimportant seeming specialized outermost casing for the unique bio-computer had been either left out of its installation, or removed after the fact. The casing was meant to contain and reflect the Transcendence Material's unique life-renewing and mutation inducing energy back into the MAGI-2, and most importantly, into Unit-01's core. While the majority of it was actually going where it was supposed to go, which also allowed the Eva to operate without an external power supply for several hours, a small but still substantial amount was escaping, and it was effecting the Angel as well, inducing mutagenic changes in the beast, which probably explained why it was so different than what Shinji had initially expected.

It could audibly communicate, it seemed to have a distinct sadistic streak, and it was undergoing a profound physical transformation. In an instant, Nerv Headquarters received the relevant information, along with detailed scans the MAGI-2 had been compiling since he struck the first blow. Shinji wanted to fully engage the berserk system and rip his opponent apart, but there would be such a release of Transcendence radiation that he'd probably end up making the Angel even more dangerous than it already was. That was simply unacceptable.

As he pondered his now many problems, the MAGI-2 pilot interface system responded to his thoughts and began analyzing the problem from the inside out. It sent the accumulated data to Nerv headquarters, where Dr. Gannon, after giving Commander Ikari a withering look, whipped out his PDA, entered several passwords into a specially programmed application, and remotely connected to the MAGI-2. He thankfully had a feature- two actually- designed into each layer of shielding in case one layer was damaged or failed to aid in containing all the radiant energy.

Each shielding layer generated a harmonic resonance field that was a polar opposite to the energy being generated by the Transcendence Material born bio-neural tissue but because the Transcendence Material generated so much of the miraculous power at one time, each individual layer could only contain about a third of what was generated. That's why there was an inner layer, a mid-layer, and an outer layer. The MAGI-2, through the very material its living circuitry was grown from, could generate its own power, and a staggering amount at that. There were also specialized converters that could use the unique energy the Transcendence Material generated to produce regular electricity to power each shielding layer.

These same shielding layers first emergency feature was simply a power setting system for the converters; Gannon simply typed in a command and the converters began using more of the Transcendence energy to generate more electrical power to power the shielding layers. Feature number two was a bit more straight-forward, but no less risky, since each shielding layers converters were rated to handle only so much, and now they were being taxed well above the highest safety rating for the devices. Feature number two, a genuine miniaturized cold fusion reactor, would also be employed to provide a power boost to the shielding layers, but it would also mean overloading those same shielding layers all the faster.

"Screw it", Shinji snarled to himself as the Angel came into view again, cracking its new knuckles getting ready to smash Evangelion Unit-01's head to pieces. Shinji could actually feel the LCL in the Entry plug begin to get warmer, and realized that it was the Angel's power doing it. The holographic display to his right came on, showing a very concerned Misato and a flustered Dr. Gannon.

"Shinji, Me lad, I got the converters for the shielding layers cranked up on bust, so we won't have to worry about the Angel gettin' a power-boost its own self. Just whatever ya do, don't use the bloody Berserk system!"

"Please, Shinji, just come back to base and we'll try to fix whats wrong, then you can have another crack at the bastard!" Misato desperately pleaded with the young Nephilim as a warning timer displayed appeared on-screen as well, indicating to Shinji that he only had about an hour before the converters over-loaded.

He turned to his quirky mentor and new commanding officer and smiled at them both, which made the two adults look at the charge questioningly. Shinji flicked a switch on the wrist of his plug suit, which caused a recessed panel behind his left butterfly grip to slide open. Gannon understood immediately what Shinji meant to do, but before he could issue any protest, Shinji slammed his closed fist onto a rather large and dark red plunger button. He heard a sound reminiscent of a large turbine engine coming up to speed, followed by an explosive sound like a rocket engine igniting. Those sounds meant that the miniature cold fusion reactor had just activated and powered up to maximum. With a quick mental command from Shinji, the reactor channelled about thirteen percent of its total power to the shielding layers, while the rest of it went to powering the Evangelion.

Dr. Gannon and Misato both yelled for Shinji to stop and listen to them, while the Commander threatened to expel Shinji from Nerv and place formal charges against him if he didn't power down the reactor at once, all saying that he now only had approximately ten minutes before all his systems overloaded from the extreme strain of channelling all that power now surging through the Evangelion's power systems.

Shinji smirked and looked to the screen again and said, "Sorry everybody, but its the only way I'm gonna beat this thing. I'm gonna use the Berserker system now, since I don't have to worry about Ugly out there getting a boost himself anymore because of a hardware glitch that _somebody _tried to cause because the outer-most layer of shielding was taken off the damn MAGI-2!" He cut communications just as the Angel bent down and grabbed Unit-01 by the throat and picked it up. Its grip was solid, but strangely steady; it also grabbed the Eva's left arm as Shinji tried to punch it, and blocked the other fist and both feet with its own AT-Field.

Its unearthly voice, strangely smooth, slid against Shinji's ears as it spoke aloud again, "**Any last words before you I send you to your final rest?**"

"Yeah", Shinji answered through the Eva's loud speakers as the Angel's blood red core began to glow with an intense lurid light.

"**And what would that be, little monkey? Your construct is strong, but I, Sachiel, am so much stronger" **The Angel questioned, sounding mostly amused, but with a distinct hint of angry malice tinting its voice, all the while trying to break the Eva's left arm but with little success.

Shinji's answer was a single word:

"_Berserker!" _

Dr. Gannon's initial mistake when he saw thatbrilliant light issuing from within the Evangelion was that Shinji had activated the Berserker system, but in fact the MAGI-2 lacking its outer-most layer of shielding allowed a substantial amount of Transcendence Energy to escape which caused the incredible physical transformation in Unit-01, plus the Evangelion was somehow channelling its pilots incredible anger. He had completely misunderstood the actions of the Evangelion, he had been so wound up by those people getting killed and everything else that was goin' on. He felt like an idiot for jumping to conclusions, but now he felt like an even bigger idiot for building the Berserker System in the first place!

He now had front-row seats to the true activation of the Berserker system, and that horrid alien getting ripped apart by a forty story bio-mechanical killing machine that was, for all intents and purposes, about to go completely insane with killer rage, as well as blow itself sky-high in the process.

The mighty Unit-01 roared with such power, that the Angel lost its grip completely and staggered back, but completely deployed it AT-Field to defend itself. The now crazed Evangelion, its eye now glowing a wild electric green, unfurled its own AT-Fieldand slammed into the startled super alien's own At-Field, the two opposing fields rippling like water, sparking like blades as they pulsed and ground against each other. The Eva roared again at its enemy's defiance and rammed the tips of its fingers into the very center of the clashing fields.

Somehow, its fingers found purchase, but only in the enemy's AT-Field, as the Evangelion's own Field seemed to wrap itself around the Eva's fingers of its own accord like it had a mind of its own, and the Evangelion began to physically tear a hole in the Angel's AT-Field, once thought to be a wholly impenetrable energy barrier. The crazed war machine snarled and roared and snarled again in mindless rage as the Angel's field fought against the Eva's brute strength. It was of no avail as the Evangelion managed to tear a whole big enough for it to focus its own field through like a spear which spread apart into many great talons of amber energy and ripped the opposing field apart, shattering it like pane glass as the Evangelion's field explosively expanded. The Angel shrieked in protest, then audibly roared what sounded like Arabic curses in anger, firing a powerful blast of crimson energy from its core, an attack it had been charging up for since before Shinji activated the Berserker system.

The mighty Evangelion dropped to a crouch so fast, the deadly beam shooting past and missing completely, and then sprang straight up, getting some air and hopefully buying a few moments. Sadly, the Angel had the same idea and was now face to face with the huge bio-mech. Just before it brought both its arms down onto Unit-01's head, Shinji realized, still self-aware enough to think at all, that the Angel's two faces had merged into one single coherent head, which greatly resembled an Evangelion's, but with a solid bone shell; it had an actual mouth that was armoured with an external jaw bone, and the skin of its mouth actually covered its teeth when its mouth was closed, but in this case, it mouth was pulled back into a demonic, fang filled angry smile. Shinji felt his head being slammed into his stomach by the double axe-handle slam and fought to stay conscious, even as his Evangelion was sent hurtling back to the Earth. Shinji flipped the Eva over so it landed on its huge feet and shot back up after the Angel, who had shot down after the Evangelion. Unit-01 whipped out an upper cut hay-maker that caught the Angel right under its new jaw, shattering the outer bone, and probably the inner bone as well, abruptly halting its downward momentum, snapping it back upward, along with snapping its head back so far it seemed to touch its own spine, twisting and breaking the spine in the process as the Evangelion spun like a cork-screw in mid-air.

The Angel squealed in agony and shock as its torso was twisted in ways no living beings body should ever be twisted, and tried to lash out with its now strangely five-fingered clenched fist, but the now berserk Evangelion clamped down on the offending limb with its teeth and savagely ripped it off then slugged the alien abomination in the lower chest area with a straight right, its enormous purple fist bursting out through the back. It quickly jammed its other hand into the gaping wound and proceeded to savagely rip the Angel bodily in two.

It grabbed the Angels legs and used the Angels lower half to swat the Angel away like some kind of annoying insect, but just as it did, the whole lower body seemed to liquify and wrap around the startled bio-mechanical monster.

For the briefest of instances, the Angel's black flesh glowed like a star, so perfectly blinding and searing, night turned into day and the very air seemed to catch fire, but then it exploded as the Angel's flesh detonated with the force of a medium-yield ballistic missile, but was strangely directional as it sent the now charred and smoking Evangelion flying many miles past Tokyo-3's city limits and into the rural countryside.

The Angel, on the other hand, had now fully regenerated its upper body while it was now rapidly growing an entirely new lower body, pursuing the Evangelion to make sure of its defeat simultaneously. In under thirty seconds, it had completely recovered from its butchering by Unit-01, and appeared to shake itself off, grumbling, **"That is the last time I underestimate these disgusting little monkeys. It is also certainly the last time **_**any**_** of them do that to me!"**

As the Angel landed on its new feet, giving the area a cursory glance to be sure of its enemy's demise, it once again began advancing on Nerv Headquarters but suddenly it heard a most discomforting sound. A familiar roar split the air, and the Angel whipped around in time enough to get both of Unit-01's huge feet slammed into its chest on either side of its core. The Angel was in a state of perfect surprise as it briefly registered that the enemy had itself completely regenerated, but how could its artificial parts restore themselves?

One of the huge bio-mech's hands viciously dug into the flesh just to the side of its glossy red core, and grabbed on for dear life. The Eva wasn't trying to rip out the core, though. What it did was open one of its odd shoulder pylons, grabbed its progressive knife, and drove the weapon right up to the hilt in the Angel's armoured head. Unit-01 then proceeded to tear the blade out of the Angel's head, right through its hideous visage and then rammed the giant-sized knife into the Angel's chest, right below the core, twisting and turning the blade every which way, trying to simple hook and rip the core out, wielding the progressive knife like a crude scalpel. It began tearing out the external ribs of the Angel, even going so far as to stab the Angel with its own torn-out anatomy. It clawed out the Angel's eyes, ripped off portions of the boney casing of its head and stabbed it with them, biting and chewing at its throat, its mutilated face, anything it could lash out at.

The truly savage Evangelion had clamped down on the Angel's throat, attempting to quite literally bite the things head off, when a sudden violet blast of light erupted from the Angel's core and sent Unit-01 flying once again. The Angel dropped to one knee, undergoing yet another transformation even as it healed, coughing up great gouts of blood and chunks of its own tissues. It was now distinctly humanoid, its boney shoulders now reasonably proportioned, and a more substantial physique. Its feet ended in five clawed toes, it had boney armour on its legs and arms, giving it the total appearance of wearing macabre body armour over a black body suit. The external ribs were now armored with heavy bone plates, but the core was left exposed.

"**Enough of this. What patience I had has been wasted on this ridiculous little fool and his lunatic weapon. Ireul was right when he told me not to underestimate humans or their inventions. I have made a fool of myself and my siblings by not finishing this quickly, but humans are _so _much fun to terrorize!"**

The Angel braced itself as it began to power up for a another blast, but this one would not be the halfhearted attempts like before. As Sachiel felt the power flow and build within him, he noticed something strange; several things actually.

Firstly, the human flying machine Sachiel had made note of earlier had released a large object from beneath it, and said object had actually stopped its own descent, right next to the now strangely calmed human construct. Why had it calmed so?

Dr. Joseph Carmine saw Shinji activate the Berserker system and swore the air blue. The kid was missing a layer of shielding on the MAGI-2, and had turned on the built-in cold fusion engine? Damn crazy fool boy; no wonder Carmine loved the boy like a little brother, but there'd be time for catching up later. He transmitted a code to the MAGI-2 that would force the Berserker System to recognize him as an ally; friend-or-foe systems were so handy! The Evangelion regarded the approaching super carrier with some trepidation, but mostly barely contained rage, and what Carmine would consider frustration at having its fun interrupted. He released his cargo and banked away, smiling as he saw the packages plasma engines kick in, pure white super-hot flame stopping the downward momentum in a heartbeat.

The mysterious package was in fact an second Exo-shell, but what nobody except for himself and Chairman Keel knew was that _this _exo-shell was the one meant for Unit-01, not the one that Commander Ikari had so conveniently _misplaced_. The first exo-shell was in fact meant for the prototype Evangelion, Unit-00. The Commander's passionate resistance to any kind of upgrades to Unit-01 had given Keel the rather sneaky idea to have back-up plans in place to make the upgrades happen, Ikari's blessing or not.

Ikari had basically wasted time and personnel trying to track down and sabotage the wrong exo-shell, not to mention given away the fact that he had attempted such subterfuge in the first place.

As the exo-shell meant for Unit-01 landed, it initially looked like a long, bulky high-tech coffin or escape pod, but the instant it touched ground, heavy mechanical locks began to disengage and powerful servo motors started up, all initiating a physical transformation that in under fifteen seconds had converted the exo-shell from its stasis form into a gigantic, color-matched, heavily armored power suit meant for an Evangelion, but one with Unit-01's dramatically increased mass and heavier proportions, a very well predicted side-effect of Transcendence Material radiation.

The Evangelion regarded the shell warily, but approached it slowly and even began to sniff it like a dog trying to scent something unfamiliar, though it remained standing up. It seemed to grudgingly accept the shell, though it jumped back in surprise as the shell opened like a blossoming flower. The Eva slowly stalked back up to the shell, and seemingly emboldened, actually climbed inside and connected itself to the proper ports, locking in to place with several hard metallic bangs. The shell closed around the Evangelion, establishing a real-time connection between the MAGI-2 and its own on-board computer system. It also established a hard connection to the Eva's power systems using the excess energy to speed its own full activation. With the exo-shell equipped, the potentially catastrophic overload was quickly averted, and with only a mere five seconds left to spare.

The exo-shell required three cold fusion reactors to function to its full potential; two of the reactors was built into the shell itself and the other, the MAGI-2's additional power source, was now safely tucked away within Unit-01's armored abdomen. The shell now had all the power it would ever need, and the Angel now only just realized it had allowed its enemy to acquire a particularly deadly new weapon.

"_**Superior life-form, I called Myself. Yes, well, not so much it seems!"**_

The Angel's self-deprecation__was well founded as the now exo-shell equipped Evangelion Unit-01 raised its massive armored left arm and fired off a barrage of heavy missiles. Even as the Angel quickly deployed its AT-Field to block the attack, it could intrinsically sense something very _wrong _ with the projectiles being launched against it; not wrong as in mistake-kind-of wrong, but wrong as in unsettling-and-abhorrent-kind-of wrong. When the missiles hit Sachiel's AT-Field, for the briefest of instances they seemed to drink up the very substance of his Field, which was then instantly regurgitated, but not from the points of impact where it was taken from, but at random points across the entire field. This created a startling visual effect, as the image of the Angel seemed to warp and twist, portions seemingly pulled into what vaguely appeared to be stylized interpretations of miniature black holes, and spit out somewhere else. The following effect was far more dramatic, as the Angel's own AT-Field seemed to back fire on its self and self-destruct. The Angel's body seemed to rip itself apart in a fiery conflagration, sending what was left of it into a near-by lake. As its head and what remained of its upper body sank like a rock, its core crack and partially dislodged from what was left of its torso, began to sputter and spark, but not before one last ditch effort. The Angel used but the smallest portion of its remaining power to launch itself back out of the lake and right at the Evangelion. It screamed defiance as it willfully detonated its own core, quite literally right in Unit-01's heavily armored face.

"**For you, My Kin! DIIIEEEEE!"**

The resultant blast was akin to several N2 mines being detonated at the same time against a single target. The black midnight sky turned so brilliant a white, that if anyone had looked directly at the blast, they would have gone permanently blind. The ground seemed to bounce and roll like waves from the shock-wave from the blast, solid rock that had lain undisturbed for countless millennium uprooted and pulverized to powder. The roar of the explosion was so powerful, the pressure waves alone would have shattered solid steel like fine crystal, and the sound itself could be heard on the mainland, knocking people to the ground like they had been struck hard.

Everything within a seven mile radius was completely vaporized. Everything else was either pulverized of flattened by the concussion waves and flash fried by the heat blast.

There is a passage about 'Hell coming to the sinner'.

Hell had come to Japan.

Tokyo-3 still stood, but even the heavily armored buildings meant to stay on the surface looked like they would fall to pieces with so much as a gentle tap from a child's fingers. To be blunt, the city, what buildings and other structures that had not been retracted into special heavy bunkers, had been utterly devastated.

This was only the first of many battles to come.

The Nerv command center was a hectic mess, as technicians and bridge crew tried to re-establish visuals of what was going on, recalibrate sensors and other equipment which had been disrupted by the Angel's self-destruct blast, clear significant amount of debris, and restore main power. Components had to be completely replaced and calibrated anew or hastily repaired and re-calibrated. Some personnel had been too close to pieces of equipment which had completely blown up or was struck by falling debris. One person was dead, his face charred and ruined right to the bone. Several more were badly burned and cut up by shrapnel, and one other person had their legs crushed by a support beam. Medics were hastily patching them up and spiriting them away to the medical bay. Thankfully, while some were indeed injured, they gritted their teeth and soldiered on, still able to stand, and in their own minds still able to work.

Dr. Gannon had been thrown across the bridge when one of the main consoles blew, trying to shield Maya and Shigeru; both had bumps and bruises but were okay. Dr. Gannon himself however...was missing an arm. What was left of the limb had closed up nicely, and it already starting to grow back, making Misato glad the man actually was part Angel, but sadly wishing he could pass that ability around.

The temperamental Scotsman shoved his dislocated shoulder back into place with an angry growl and walked back to the main console, trying to give the three 'bridge bunnies' a helping hand with his remaining hand, but being politely rebuffed and asked by all three to go to the medical bay to get checked out; Maya was aghast at his injury, Shigeru thought the foreigner was trying to be a bad-ass for trying to work even after losing a limb, and Makoto actually asked aloud, incredulous as all get out, "Are you nuts or something?"

Dr. Gannon answered, quite seriously, "I'm not really sure", and then ducked past the three and proceeded to strip some wiring-with his teeth. They all stared at his backside, since the rest of him was deep into the damaged console. They all realized that he had no tools for stripping the damaged wiring of casing and so Shigeru asked, "Uh, Doc, what are you using to strip the wires?"

Gannon stuck his head back out enough to look at the three, and they all saw he actually had several wires between his teeth. He simply pointed to his busy mouth, and said through the wires, "Any other questions?" Gannon grumbled something in what the Makoto thought was Old Gaelic and then suddenly thrashed about. The three quickly pulled him out of the console and Maya yanked the live wires from his mouth, noticing his badly burned lips.

"Knock it off, you whack job! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" An Angry Misato yelled at Gannon's Antics. The Scotsman simply groaned as the two male senior technicians helped the odd-ball doctor to his feet and began escorting him to the Med-bay. Misato heard Maya grumble as she got under the console herself, making damn sure to power it down first, and attempting to properly make repairs.

"Handsome? Oh, yes. Smart? Definitely. Funny? Sure. Quirky? Absolutely! _Common sense? _Nada". Misato snickered at that, and hoped that Dr. Gannon would hopefully look before he leaps from now on; while he may be some kind of super genius, he also had several very large screws loose.

"Yes!" Maya whooped with laughter as she managed to fix the console properly and finally get the external cameras back on line. She was so excited, she came up so fat she banged her head on the bottom edge of the console with a resounding bang, swearing emphatically and holding her head in both hands. The Deputy Commander had come down to see what he could do to help, so for the moment he gingerly helped a smarting Lt. Ibuki, while the Commander himself was actually helping other tech crews, a surprising action coming from the normally aloof head of Nerv. As the Deputy Commander helped Maya into her work chair, the other techs had managed to get primary systems back on-line. As the command center's lighting flickered back on to a steady glow, the holographic main view-screen ceased fritzing and once again projected a steady, solid image.

Everyone in the command center had soon wished that the image had not been nearly so clear, because what they saw outside was akin to Hell itself. There were pools and rivers of red hot liquid rock everywhere, like the caldera of an active volcano. Winds swirled and roared like a great storm, carrying with them hot sulfurous ash and oily black soot that would choke the life out of anything that got too close, a great ink-black cloud stretching across the once beautiful night sky. There was a great swirling mass of white hot flame at the center of the inferno that the Nerv staff now witnessed which seemed to fill up the screen. Some people weeped quietly, some did not. Some swore and cursed, angry at what the invader had done to their homeland, and many swore vengeance, silently or other wise.

As the sheer horror of what they all saw truly began to sink in, the great fire storm suddenly began to collapse into itself, as though being swallowed up from the inside out. All of the heat and flame and contaminants were actually being drawn back into the center of what had been the firestorm. The now rapidly cooling air was being drawn into a swirling vortex that steadily grew with every second, creating a massive column of spinning atmosphere that looked quite a bit like what people thought the pillar of cloud mentioned several times in the Christian Bible would look like.

After a full minute, a vague image could be seen at the center of the vortex, but whatever it was, it was huge. As the image slowly began to become more focused, clearer and more well defined, the Nerv staff were simply dumb-struck as each and everyone realized not only what the mystery form was, but also what was causing the vortex.

Evangelion Unit-01, still equipped with its exo-shell, confidantly strode out of the great pillar of cloud like a great royal purple armored God, immense and powerful and striking, its neon green highlights and black colored sections of armor shockingly impressive without the shell normally, but now with it, Eva Unit-01 was all the more visually stunning.

The Evangelion retained the Herculean physique it gained thanks to the Transcendence Material energy. The Exo-shell made it seem monstrously larger. The entire body was encased in a powered exo-skeleton that, when closed, was a completely integrated system, not a collection of powered components and add-ons. The legs began initally as a collection of bulging, curved heavy armor plating that vaguely resembled muscle groups tightly locked together that seemed to flare out somewhat at the hip. The outer thighs were fruther protected by rounded single-piece armor plates that were lined with glowing piping and large bluish mirror-like lenses. The knees integrated the hardened guard that waspresent on Unit-01 to start, but locked them down onto the heavily armored shins, just below a wicked looking triangular knee guard that could double as a stabbing weapon. The boots were a blend of intricate bio-mechanics, layers of decorative, interlocking heavy armor plating and heavy duty machinery, with what looked like arrays of cylindrical generators along the outside of the calf.

The torso section looked more than capable of lugging the much heavier armor, with armor plates designed to mimic the now tightly packed, hulking muscle underneath. Some of the exo-shell had a type of armor plating that was structured after actual muscle groups, known as Bio-Cybernetic plating; shape and placement, all capable of flexing just like living muscle tissue and just as pliable. Some of the mechanics were on the surface as well, musculature duplicating robotic motor systems and powerful servo motors, pneumatics and hydraulics but armored themselves as well. The ridiculously heavy looking body armor was topped off with large vents on either side of the Eva's ugly head, much more armor on the shoulder modules, the pylons folded down backward, two large cylindrical reactors on the back, and finally enormous heavy guantlets that started at the mid-bicep and ended with razor sharp claws that semed to be made of seemless metal that ended in claws, jagged along the back of the digits that each had a shield mounted to the fore-arm, which housed an extensive on-board weapon suite, not including all of the full exo-shell's weapon suites

Its most prominent physical change, however, was its head; a mechanized collar made the now muscular neck seem almost dome-shaped and the back of the ehad now completely protected by scale-like plate armor, a spiked jaw-piece making its demonic visage even more dreadful, but now the existing helmet piece had extra armored plates that covered each side of the beastial face with stylized optics proteting the eyes, connected near the back of the Eva's armored skull, though not connecting along the top of the Evangelion's head and snout, but connected via the heavier jaw add-on and a rather large, prominent curving crest that rose above the head like a sweeping crown. All in all, it gave the Evangelion the visage of an armored and angry saurian, like some kind of monstrous dinosaur.

Intimidating? Yes. Frightening? Absolutely. Something you want to make angry? Commit suicide now!

The Evangelions heavily armored hands now clenched into fists and the Eva adopted a stance, its legs spread apart, its fists held out in front of it, as though inviting attack, and then suddenly it roared as loud as it did when the Berserker system had truly been deployed. The pillar of cloud blew away, leaving a crystal clear night sky. The Evangelion now stood in the center of a fourteen mile wide crater. It stopped roaring and looked around, to the left and right and then behind. It turned back around and then, rather oddly shook its head slowly, as though greived by what it saw, and slowly but surely walked back toward the base.

As the Bridge crew fought to get over their stupification, monitors and computers came back on line and began displaying the pilots vitals and stats. The crews began to get their collective heads back into the game and began relaying information as it was displayed on their monitors. While some of what they were reading seemed relatively normal, some of the readings made no sense whatsoever. As Misato mentally slapped herself back to attention, She began asking the technicians and bridge crew what made the new readings so out of the ordinary.

One of new additions to the staff, an Ensign Kaede Agano, spoke up from behind her.

"Ma'am", Ensign Agano began, "While Pilot Ikari's heartrate is good, the readings we're getting show a kind of, well, 'heartbeat echo', like he has _two _hearts, maybe _more_. That's not the most unusual part. We're getting a distinct blue pattern from within the Entry plug; well, not a perfect blue pattern, but something that while its pattern is reading as something predominantly Angel, there is still a trace of a human pattern interlaced with this new signal, but its like the two patterns are intermingling and changing. What's more, there seems to be evidence of a completely unique and never-before identified pattern type beginning to emerge from Pilot Ikari himself".

Before Misato could even begin to formulate something to say to that, the Commander beat her to the punch.

"Send the emergency remote deactivation override command to Evangelion Unit-01 Immediately! Power it down, have it transported back to base, and place it on full emergency lockdown and put into immediate cryo-stasis! When the pilot is recovered, restrain and sedate him, and put him into full quarantine isolation! The possibility of contamination may have occurred!"

"Commander Ikari, Sir!" Misato tried to interrupt, but the Commander was having none of it.

"_Captain _Katsuragi, I have given My orders, and I expect them to be carried out. There will be NO discussion of anykind until a full and exhaustive examination of Unit-01 can be performed, safely and in a controlled environment. Or perhaps you would like to join Pilot Ikari?" He annunciated her rank for emphasis of his authority without having to remind her of it, and the threat was to make very plain his orders were to be followed to the letter; without question, without hesitation.

Misato Katsuragi growled underneath her breath, but calmly and clearly replied, "Sir! Yes, Sir, Commander Ikari!" She turned to the other bridge crew and said, "Dispatch a security team to the Eva cages! Also, deploy an ultra-heavy transport truck and service/supply team to pick up Evangelion Unit-01 after it has safwely and completely powered down. Initiate emergency Entry plug ejection and send recover teams to take the pilot into custody! Move!"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

Unbeknownst to everyone, someone sat in the Commander's huge and intimidating office, relaxing rather blithely in the Commander's large Corinthian leather chair, sipping Macallan, fine single-malt scotch and smoking a hand-rolled Cuban cigar, one of twenty remaining in all the world since Second Impact and The Resource Wars left Cuba a drowned-and bombed-out wasteland. He had his thousand dollar Guchi leather boots kicked up onto the Commander's massive desk, occasionally glimpsing at the small video monitor built into the desk, observing the battle and aftermath with almost lazy boredom, but scrutinizing every minute detail as they generated.

He missed nothing.

He held his cigar with his teeth as he raked his freed hand through his platinum white hair, the blacks of his eyes makig the electrical blue of his iris' pop. His eliptical pupils narrowed like a snakes as the battle concluded, and Ikari barked and struted about like the fool he really was. Oh, he'd come to Shinji's rescue soon enough, but the show was far too entertaining to pass up! He smiled his vampiric smile, the dim light of the office making his _very _pronounced canines gleam. He stood from the desk and downed the last of the Macallan, swearing at himself for finishing that fine drink in so brutish a manner, then smiled ruefully and shrugged, as though to say 'oh, well'. He began walking toward the sweeping rear window of the office, but from his pace, it seemed he wasn't going to slow down, not at all.

Even more bizarre was the fact that the mystery man seemed to become transparent as he walked becoming less substantial as he walked, eventually disappearing all together when he was but five steps from the window.

No one ever realized that someone had been there.

**Author's Notes:** Well, Folks, I never thought that I'd get this out to you so quickly, so everybody had a great surprise! I hope you have enjoyed reading this latest installment as much as I have had in writing it and presenting it to all of you! Please, read and leave me reviews, they inspire me to write faster! I hope to see you all again in our next installment of Forbidden Designs, titled "Backstories Better Left Alone".


	6. Back Stories Better Left Alone

**Disclaimer:** Hideaki Anno and Studio Gainax own NGE, so please don't sue me! I own only original plot elements and characters, so lay off the Lawyers! Here comes "Back Stories Better Left Alone". I hope you enjoy!

Dr. Emil Gannon was in a rage. He had been stunned by an electrical shock when he tried to strip wires with his teeth (He _really _needed a better shrink!) and was in the Med-Bay, snarling like a beast when he learned of Commander Ikari's ridiculous order in regards to Shinji. He had stormed down to the detention center and tried to find out for himself what the bletherin' Hell was going on, when he had been intercepted by Captain Katsuragi and several Section-2 agents. While the Captain had tried to reason and calm the enraged Scotsman, several Section-2 snickered quietly behind her, one of them actually poking fun at him for being so hot-headed because he was a foreigner, to which the good Captain told them where to shove it.

Gannon had snickered at that little barb, taken off his sun glasses, giving everyone a very good look at his frightening eyes. Everybody took two steps back save for Misato, but the same arrogant jerk who had made fun of Gannon now giggled openly.

"Stupid _gai-jin_! You think you can scare us with your fancy contacts?"

The man's entire body expanded like a balloon for a fraction of a second as Gannon's eyes flashed blue, before it popped with enough force to knock everybody off their feet, save Gannon, the flesh slightly burnt. The jerk had been reduced to a steaming pile of gore, painting the walls and everybody that had stood in the hallway, except for the AT-Field enveloped Nephilim on the warpath. Misato was scared to death, because she honestly believed that Gannon had finally been pushed way too far, and was showing what happened to people who angered him.

Misato really couldn't blame the guy; he and this Dr. Carmine had raised Shinji as their own when the Commander had abandoned him, and now the boy was locked in a cell because of a rash choice and some bizarre bio-sensor readings. While She had received her marching orders from the Commander, she hadn't liked them one little bit. She had not gotten a good look at Shinji after he was extracted from the entry plug, but what she did notice was a very noticeable increase in height, how much she couldn't tell because Shinji was being dragged along by a handful of Section-2 and regular security, hinting at quite the increase in mass as well.

Dr. Gannon was now actually levitating above the floor as he glared at the group, then swiftly floated past them, making a bee-line right for the detention block. Misato actually got up and jogged after him, glad he wasn't doing some kind of super-speed flight schtick like you'd see in a Saturday morning cartoon or martial arts anime. He had so many powers, Misato now realized, and if had wanted to use it to really destroy Nerv from within, it would be a cake walk for him. Yet he did not go on some kind of killing spree. She could even forgive him his use of deadly force due to the fact that the Section-2 agent he popped like a balloon (how had done that, anyway?) had in fact been a hired mercenary, and one with a weakness for _very_ young children.

Misato had wanted to break the creeps neck herself; Gannon simply beat her to the punch. She wondered just how many more professional scumbags were on Nerv's payroll; after receiving that Intel from an anonymous source, she now knew that at least eight more Section-2 agents were career killers, monsters-for-hire that had committed such a range of crimes and offences that they'd never all be discovered. She also knew that if Gannon got to the detention center before she managed to waylay him, He really would go on a killing spree!

As the Captain yelled out to Dr. Gannon to stop and listen to her, another pair of those other-worldly eyes watched from the shadows, a gleaming smile full of sharp teeth spreading wide. The hidden watcher saw Gannon slow to a stop and actually turn to the lovely young woman who was trying to keep him from doing something rash...again. Gannon regarded her with a sceptical look, but lowered himself to the floor, and gestured with his hands for Misato to say what she had to say.

"Doctor, Shinji is not in the detention area, he's in the Medical Ward; They medically induced a coma to keep him under control and locked him in one of those damn coffin shaped stasis chambers! The commander thought that Shinji had been contaminated and posed a security risk, so he had him placed into isolation quarantine. The stasis chamber is still in the medical ward, but its going to be moved to a secure isolation lab. Shinji and Unit-01 both are going to be experimented on to see just what the hell happened to both, and if what happened is a good thing or bad thing. If its a good thing, no harm done, but if the commander sees it as a bad thing...," Misato let the comment hang unfinished, letting her meaning sink in.

The moment it did, Gannon eyes widened, his face twisting into a grotesque mask of rage. He held out his hands to the Captain and simply said, "Take My hands", which she did. The two of them disappeared in a flash of light. Their hidden watcher smirked at Gannon's display of power, glad the good Doctor was making use of his new abilities. These abilities would be part and parcel of the new humanity that would emerge after all of the undesirables were cleansed from the world. To think, the entire Seele Council was all for it; well, they should be, since each and everyone of the members had been enhanced in the same way that Gannon had been. The Red Earth Ceremony would reduce the unworthy into LCL, while everybody else who had received the necessary 'enhancements' would be completely unscathed by Third Impact itself, and even absorb what was left of those deemed unworthy of the coming new order.

Lorenz Keel chuckled to himself as he thought about how easy it was to give mankind their second chance at Eden now that they had the Transcendence Material. Soon, everyone deemed worthy would have the power of the Angels, but be so much superior to the ugly aliens that there would be no comparison at all. All of Seele's ruling council had now been transformed, and were practically chomping at the bit to get started, but as their minds grew, they realized that they now had centuries to get the plan right, centuries of new life and restored youth that would never waver for all that time. They decided that, for the immediate future, that they'd let things stay as is, with some minor changes, of course. They were going to live it up, so to speak.

Keel decided it was time to play good cop and made a bee-line straight for the bridge to confront Ikari and give him the thorough and humiliating dressing-down he so richly deserved. The bullet through the eye would sadly have to come much later, at least until certain things had been dealt with. For right now, he'd get Ikari off Gannon's back and make sure Shinji was okay; the boy may be a long-term experiment, but Keel really liked the young man. If Shinji ever found out that _Keel himself _had allowed a wanted Dr. Amanda Krane to steal a sample of Transcendence Material and use it to augment hard narcotics, Keel felt absolutely certain that his plans for Shinji would unravel. Oh, he planned to fess up eventually, but for the moment, discretion was the better part of success, valor could kiss his German backside.

Speaking of Shinji, Keel began to wonder how that temperamental Scotsman was doing in trying to release him.

Dr. Gannon was particularly miffed, that's how he was doing. When he and Captain Katsuragi had appeared in the Med-bay, preceded by a flash of light, startling half the staff into hysterics, Misato had shown Gannon where Shinji was being held, after taking several minutes to shake off the after-affects of teleporting with Gannon. '_How had he done that_?', she had asked herself, but had refrained from getting an answer as she was quite certain it would make her head spin right off her shoulders. Shinji had been put into stasis in a larger than normal stasis pod, which looked like a glossy metallic coffin with a computer terminal on one side. Misato just about panicked when she looked inside; something inside – vaguely like Shinji – had a mask strapped to its face, with LCL being pumped into it. Misato couldn't make out any distinct characteristics because Shinji, or whatever he had changed into, was encased in semi-transparent Bakelite, pulse monitors and other monitoring devices attached to his body.

When Misato told Dr. Gannon, the expression on his face prompted Misato to run out of the room, grab as many worried staff and security personnel, usher them away from the quarantine room, and jog down the hall. She was glad for her foresight, because – following a beastly roar and a fiery blast of white-hot energy that made the Captain think of ionized plasma- the walls were blown out, the shock-wave throwing everybody to the floor. Dr. Gannon strolled out of the destruction like he was taking a leisurely walk in the park. He was carrying a limp form in his arms, a frightfully savage expression on his yet-again inhuman features.

Shinji had grown to at least adult size, his height indiscernible from the fact that Gannon was carrying him in his arms, and had packed on at least a hundred pounds of toned muscle, his formerly black hair now ghostly white, as was his skin, but as he tried to stir, Misato noticed that while his eyes were still an electric blue, the black was gone from his eyes, making them look far more normal.

Unfortunately, while Shinji still looked human, though remarkably beautiful in her opinion, Gannon went from handsome to nightmarish; his limbs and torso were longer and he had even sprouted _two pairs_ of extra arms which had torn through his expensive-looking coat which was now ruined and hanging off in tatters. He had an extra pair of eyes which had emerged from his temples and long boney spikes sticking out of his back in a rather symmetrical pattern. His entire head was now shaped very much like an Evangelion's head, but he still had his hair which emerged from the back of his skull, the rest of his head encased in a helmet-like shell rather reminiscent of the Third Angel.

Misato felt like weeping, because if Gannon had changed that much, she honestly thought that he'd never go back to normal. She had no idea how right she was. Gannon knew that he'd never go back to being human, even if it was just in appearances. He was going to confront the Commander and _all _his staff, and explain in complete detail how all of this came to be.

Shinji was going to kill him.

Maya was, at the moment, accompanying a Section-2 detachment who had reported that they had found Dr. Akagi. The other two senior Lieutenants thought they had been seeing things when Maya dashed out of the room so fast after hearing the news. Her heart leapt when she heard the news, and could barely contain herself as they headed toward an abandoned warehouse where Section-2 had learned that Dr. Akagi's mysterious kidnappers had stashed her away. Surveillance showed that there was only one heat-source in the building that was identifiable as a person. What was really wrong with that picture was that she was lying on what they guessed was an operating table with a lotof equipment placed around her.

Maya didn't even want to think about what that meant, but still, the thought chilled her. What had Dr. Akagi's kidnapper's done to her? Was this some kind of trap, or was it something more? Maya didn't know, but at this particular moment, she didn't really give a damn. All she needed to know was that her mentor was still alive.

_'Sempai...we'll get you back, I promise!' _the young lieutenant vowed to herself, and waited as the insertion team readied to breach the building through the back door. A shape-charge had been placed on the door; it would blow in the door with a directional blast which would disorientate any potential perpetrators laying in wait.

"Okay, folks", the Team leader called over his radio, "prepare to breach, I repeat, prepare to breach!" He and another agent in full tactical gear were on either side of the door, the second agent priming the detonator. He hit the switch, blowing the door inward. The agents came around and rushed through, barking "Everybody down, now!" or "Drop your weapons!"

All completely unnecessary, as the place was deserted. As the team began calling out all clears, Maya rushed from around that parked SUV she and several other agents had arrived in. The agent that had been acting as her bodyguard called after her to stop, but she rushed past his grasping hands and the other agents before they realized what was going on. The Section-2 agent called out, "Goddammit! Somebody grab her!" Maya had already approached the table where her mentor lay, but when she got a good look, she gasped in horror. She quickly fell into quiet weeping which quickly became a horrified and heart-broken screaming fit as she dropped to her knees.

One of the team rushed up to her, and knelt beside her and began to ask what was wrong, but silenced immediately when he got a look for himself at what had made Maya break down. He removed his heavily tinted goggles revealing the same kind of bizarre eyes that Shinji and Dr. Gannon had, so he could be absolutely sure of what he was seeing: There were _dozens _of bags of donor blood on large racks arranged around the operating table. They were all connected to life-support equipment that pumped it into the prone Dr. Akagi. The same equipment provided breathing assistance, extracted toxins from her body, and generally kept her alive. Her face was a hideous wreck to start, her lips seemingly burned off as though by a blow-torch, her eye-lids cut off with a grisly precision, the rest of her face a collection of horrible bruises, cuts, and a variety of burns.

The rest of her was no better, as both her arms and her legs had been removed, but with no precision or skill whatsoever; bloody knives and what appeared to be bloody gardening tools scattered around haphazardly, including hedge trimmers, shears, shovels, etcetera. Tubes leading from pouches labelled as nutrient supplements, a large variety of stimulants, anti-biotics and anti-virals, and even LCL were lead into what was left of her limbs.

Dialysis machines, heart-rate monitors, respirators, and whatever other medical machines Dr. Akagi's kidnappers thought to utilize to keep their prisoner alive as they butchered her. She had been reduced to a Frankenstein experiment gone beyond any moral conception of the concept of wrong. The worst thing was, she was still alive. Ritsuko Akagi turned her head to look at the Section-2 agent and actually had enough frame of mind left to her to gesture him over. The agent looked like he was going to vomit, but he savagely stomped down on the gag reflex, and knelt to look the mutilated doctor in her lidless eyes. She turned her head slightly to look at a point the Agent thought was past him, but in fact she was looking at his holstered side-arm.

The Agents look of horror was met with Akagi nodding her head, as though to say, "You know what you have to do".

The Agent stood up, a snarl on his face, concealed by his face mask. He tilted his head back as he composed himself, taking off his helmet and tossing it aside. Lt. Ibuki had finally calmed down enough to dare to walk closer. As she did, the agent undid the clip on his holster and pulled out his .50 caliber Desert Eagle. He clicked off the safety, cursing and damning himself for what he was about to do. Maya saw him pull out his side-arm as she walked up beside him, trying to hold back tears as she hoarsely whispered, "W-what are y-you doing?"

She didn't have to ask a second time as he pulled back on the slide, chambering a heavy hollow-point round. Maya looked from the gun to the Agent, aghast. She made a lunge for the gun, but another agent had come up from behind, and wrapped his arms around Maya, pinning her arms to her sides. She kicked and wailed, screaming and begging for the agent not to do what he was about to, that they could still save Dr. Akagi. The Agent said, "Get her out of here", biting off each word as though under great effort. He leveled his gun at the mutilated Dr. Akagi, who pulled what was left of her lips into a horrible mockery of a grateful smile. The Agent simply cocked the hammer back, making sure that Maya and his colleague were out of eye-sight, so Maya wouldn't have to see this, and so his colleague would be able to call 'plausible deniability' and blame it on him.

He turned to the ruined woman and all but whispered, "I'm sorry, Doc".

He shot her twice in the heart and twice in the head, destroyed the equipment and when he ran out of bullets, he smashed it to pieces with his empty hands, concluding with a white-hot thunderous blast of energy generated from his eyes. After twenty minutes, he screamed his rage to the heavens, shattering every window around for five square blocks. When he trusted himself to speak, he radioed Deputy Commander Fuyutsuki with what had happened.

"Yes, sir. She's dead. It was awful, just...I have no words for it, really, Sir".

"_That's alright, Agent Forbes. Just get back here and give the Commander your report, so we can all __just move on. Oh, and for God's sake, go home and get some rest after! Take a week off, and see what you can do to try to help Lt. Ibuki through this"._

"Sir, with all due respect, I think the Lieutenant would rather blow my head off rather than sit down and talk to me".

"_I know. Just...be there for her. Don't let her suffer through this alone"._

"Sir, yes sir", was Agent Forbes reply. Things were easier back in America, Forbes thought to himself as he ended the transmission. He had tried to end his own life once before after 'The Incident', but had somehow completely regenerated from it. He had blown his own head off with the very gun in his shaking hand- all because his wife had come to see him as something other than human and ran off with the kids- but his head had completely grown back. It seemed Death wasn't letting him take the easy way out, it seemed.

Not that he deserved it, anyway.

Nerv's senior staff had been assembled in the large main briefing room. Lt. Ibuki's absence had been excused due to Dr. Akagi's recent discovery and subsequent death. Capt. Katsuragi wept quietly at the loss of her oldest friend, the two present senior Bridge technicians softly talked about all the goings-on, Dr. Carmine was present to represent his absent friend who had spirited Shinji aware to who-knows-where, the Deputy Commander standing just to the Commander's left, looking worried that he was going to be one of Carmine's targets.

A surprise arrival to the meeting was Chairman Lorenz Keel himself. The Commander, while visibly as cool as a cucumber, he was scared to death. Keel was here in person, and his remarkable transformation made gendo realize that if Keel had been renewed by this power the foreigners had dubbed 'Transcendence Energy', then who else had undergone the process? How old were Dr. Gannon and Dr. Carmine? Gendo knew only their names, and knew of only two or three research projects they had been involved in. For all he knew, they were as old as Keel Himself! He had seen what abilities this power had granted to his son and the two foreigners, but if Keel had these powers too, he could simply kill Gendo Ikari where he sat, call it a day, and simply select someone else to take full authoritative control of Nerv. With Shinji and Gannon now transformed into something 'other', he dared not go against Keel, not even to put forward his own opinions.

The Nephilim form Keel had been granted was six feet, nine inches tall. He was leanly muscled beneath that voluminous, heavy leather Armani coat he wore. He had showed off during a televised interview on CNN several months ago. Chiseled as though from cream-colored marble, he had every young lady in the audience either whistling appreciatively, squealing like adolescents, and in one case, throwing her panties at him. His terrible eyes were not even a slight deterrent, but seemed to be as inviting to the female gender as the rest of him. His vampire smile was probably useful when approaching little goth girls. A voluminous mane of silky platinum blonde hair completed the flawless picture.

Ikari wanted to blow it open with a sawed-off shotgun!

Chairman Keel cleared his throat, calling for attention. All conversation stopped and everyone focused on the stunning German sitting at the other end of the conference table, who apparently was bored because he was checking under his nails for dirt. He looked up and seemed to notice everyone staring at him as though for the first time.

"Sorry, had a bit of a tickle in my throat", he joked, but from the looks on everyone's faces, they were in no mood for jokes. Keel's Sheepish look actually made Ikari feel a bit better, though he knew that wasn't likely to continue. Chairman Keel straightened in his chair, cleared his throat a second time, and properly addressed the gathered staff, his tone somber but firm.

"Well, after that false-start, lets get down to the _real _business at hand. Firstly, we must address some tragic news so to put it to rest and so to let people mourn on their own: Dr. Ritsuko Agaki was recently located by Section-2, but she had been extensively and brutally tortured. She died soon after her retrieval, her injuries had been so extensive. The poor woman was missing _body parts_, for Christ sakes! When those responsible are caught, Nerv has my full authority to return the favor".

Keel paused for a moment, to let his words sink in for a moment, then continued on, his tone not quite so somber, but more heated. He continued on.

"Let me make Myself very clear. Section-2 was doing their jobs, and so I do not ever want to hear some lame-jerk comment about them dragging their heels or some such. Its not their fault that _somebody_", He levelled a glare at the Commander, "treats them like his own personal Gestapo. The duties that the Commander assigned them were given precedence over searching for Dr. Akagi. Not to mention that half of the agents that constitute the security division are, in fact, _contract killers!"_

Keel knew that such strong language during what was supposed toa simple general meeting was a bit heavy-handed, but the time for kid gloves was off, and now the time had come for Keel to manage Nerv _his way_. Considering Keel himself had been a _member _of Hitler's Gestapo, comparing Section-2 to that hated group was a particularly aggressive move. He had a bomb-shell to drop, and Ikari was going to have it land right on his empty head.

"I understand that everyone here at Nerv thought very highly of Dr. Akagi", He began again, making sure that all eyes were glued to him thanks to that comment about Akagi, "Sadly, the truth is ever more painful due to the fact of her treason against this very organization".

"_**WHAT?!"**_

The indignant screech came from the lovely Captain Katsuragi. She had shot to her feet so suddenly, Dr. Carmine had fallen out of his chair and rolled on the floor, massaging his head, and was now pulling himself, glaring at Keel for dropping his bomb like he did. Keel snickered at Misato, and smirked as he finished what he was going to say.

"Dr. Akagi, did in fact, attempt to sabotage Dr. Gannon and Dr. Carmine's exo-shell project", he smiled his shark-smiled right at the Commander, who now realized that all he had ever done to be restored to his beloved wife was going to go up in flames when Keel finished with, "under direct orders from _parties unknown_".

Nerv Supreme Commander Gendo Ikari almost fell out of his chair himself, but managed to hold his place, as well as expression. He couldn't believe it! Keel had not disclosed his involvement. With his constant quarrelling with Doctors Gannon and Carmine about Unit-01's upgrades and system overhauls, he would have been a shoe-in for a suspect and Akagi's benefactor in the exo-shell sabotage plot. Why had Keel done that? He would have been rid of Gendo for sure if he had exposed him. What was he up to? Gendo Ikari started to think about the whys and came to an abrupt conclusion: He was still useful to Keel in some form or fashion.

As the Commander gazed down the table at the Instrumentality Chairman, he realized that Keel had changed in ways beyond the physical, and now he was going to have to play a deeper game if he was going to accomplish his goals, but another question quickly popped into Gendo's mind. He wondered to himself if Keel didn't already know about _his _plans for Instrumentality, and was planning a counter-move or two to deal with that eventuality. He knew that to rush things would be disastrous, now that he was a scientist down, so he needed to get into the heads of Keel's new associates and see what made them tick, and if they could be manipulated.

Gendo decided for the immediate future to focus on the rest of Keel's briefing.

"Dr. Akagi had no choice in the matter. Poor woman, she had been threatened by an unknown group wanting the exo-shell project shutdown permanently, saying that it was the will of God, or some other such nonsense. Section-2 found threatening letters in her apartment mailbox, as well as likewise e-mails on her computer at home, and even at work. This heinous breach of security will be isolated, plugged, and the perpetrators punished most severely. Now moving on", Keel continued, "the second exo-shell has been located...at the bottom of the lake. Not to worry, the storage module is water-tight, and is being salvaged right now. Speaking of the exo-shells, firstly, the exo-shell equipped to Unit-01 has now become an integrated component of the Evangelion; there's no removing it without seriously damaging the Eva it's equipped to as well".

"_I'm going kill those bastards, just you wait!" _Ikari angrily thought to himself as He was yet again faced with a problem beyond his control. What did Keel mean the shell was now an 'integrated component'? What the Hell did that mean?!

Keel pulled a remote control of of an inside pocket and clicked a control bringing down the lights, and another to begin a digital presentation that Keel had prepared in advance. When the lights came down completely, the presentation began by showing Unit-01 as it first appeared, still quite menacing with its skeletal physique and demonic visage, followed by several stills and side-by-side video clips of its incredible transformation and the fight with the Third Angel, the equipping of the exo-shell and its subsequent victory using those bizarre missiles it fired from one of its massive gauntlets. The final images were what appeared as computer-enhanced x-rays of what the Eva looked like now beneath its armor; everyone was stunned when they saw that the Eva had even more extensive cybernetic implants and robotic enhancements.

The Eva was now- inside and out - by all appearances equal parts machine and living organism. Much of the surface gear connected directly to the exo-shells inner mechanisms. From the looks on the senior staffs faces, no one expected that particular outcome to the metamorphic event Unit-01 experienced; Commander Ikari looked fit to kill at this development, Keel smiled like a shark at his victory, and Dr. Carmine wondered just when somebody had made the alterations to the exo-shell to produce _that _kind of up-grade. It was like the Eva itself had begun to absorb and assimilate the exo-shell, while the shell itself had replaced its missing gear as fast as it was absorbed. Even without the exo-shell, Eva Unit-01 could still be described as a cybernetic herculean

The Commander was, without a doubt, the first to ask questions. While he kept his tone as neutral as possible, the look on his face spoke volumes of what he was really feeling toward this latest development.

"Chairman Keel", Ikari ground out, "Was this particular _upgrade_ an intentional experiment or a fortunate fluke? I can't imagine such a transformation would be some kind of freak accident, no matter how adaptable the technology".

"Of course, it was intentional, Commander!"

Keel had a smile that a demon would be envious of.

"What a silly question to ask considering how adamant I've been toward the deployment of this technology. Since Unit-00 will also be receiving this level of enhancement through the second exo-shell being equipped to it, Nerv will soon have two such magnificent constructs to deploy. Besides, this meeting has far more important matters to deal with. While Dr. Akagi's betrayal, whether intentional or not, has great implications for future operations, we must now deal with the recent events tied to Unit-01's tremendous evolution. We must now discuss the transformations of one Shinji Ikari, Pilot of the aforementioned Evangelion and one Dr. Emil Robert Gannon, Scottish genius behind the creation of the extraordinary 'Transcendence Material'. They have left Nerv headquarters due to the startling nature of their individual metamorphosis. As the Captain can attest, it was quite dramatic, was it not, My dear?"

"Yes, Mr. Chairman. While Shinji, I mean Pilot Ikari grew in size to easily Adult size, not to mention losing any trace of pigmentation, his physical transformation was remarkably normal. Dr. Gannon's, on the other hand, was decidedly anything _but _normal. He actually grew several extra arms, generated what appears to be a complete exo-skeleton but he still has his hair, which is now much longer. He even has extra eyes, he's much taller, a lot of spikes sticking out of him, and looks so much like what the Third Angel turned into, you'd think it had somehow come back from the grave, though what soft tissue I could see was a decidedly dark magenta color. The snarl on his face when he carried Pilot Ikari out was perfectly chilling; if he ever decided to come back here, he'd make a bee-line straight for the Commander with murder on his mind, considering the Commander ordered Pilot Ikari put into a coma and locked down in stasis".

Chairman Keel raised an elegant eye-brow at the Captain's concluding remarks and gave Ikari such a potently dirty look, the Commander actually let his mask slip and cleared his throat. While Keel appeared angry, inside he was jumping for joy; when he had covertly administered samples of active Transcendence material into Shinji and Emil's blood streams, he had had no idea how the potent super-biological material would react when introduced into Nephilim physiology. The combat enhancer nanotechnology which was apart of the other-worldly bio-matter would allow for controlled, designer mutations and physiological alterations.

The more the two test subjects transformed, the easier it would become to program the bio-technology into producing desired transformations.

Keel felt himself salivating at the prospect of analyzing the data from the two wayward Nephilim, but for right now, he needed to put the house of Nerv in order. He had to get things here settled and working like clock-work; especially the particular upgrades _He _had designed for Unit-00. For the immediate future though, he needed to get Shinji and Emil back. The only way that they'd ever come back is if they no longer had to worry about violent confrontations and imprisonment.

"Well, back to the present. Pilot Ikari and Dr. Gannon are not the enemy here. They have never had any control over their transformations, which were initially brought about by being clandestinely injected with Transcendence Material".

Keel's statement made everyone in the room whip their eyes to him. He ruefully smiled as he continued with his latest bombshell.

"Yes, they were injected with the remarkable substance against their wills, and without their knowledge. This did not happen recently, as some would believe. It happened to them both when Shinji was only eight years old. A week after Myself and Dr. Gannon met Shinji for the first time, guardianship of the boy was transferred to us; he was an emotional and psychological wreck, thank you very much, Commander Ikari", Keel glared daggers at a visibly uncomfortable Ikari who adjusted his collar as though he was overly warm or had trouble breathing.

"It took a while for the boy to warm up to us, but Dr. Gannon was a very open and inviting soul. He was patient with the boy, always ready to engage him with something fun to do; he simply never let the boy have a moment to feel depressed or melancholy. Soon, the boy was laughing and carrying on like a child his age should; when Dr. Carmine arrived", Keel gestured to the ruby-haired American, "I thought that the boy would die laughing, to be quite honest. His relatives were naturally concerned about him but they relented soon enough".

Keel smirked at that as he had Shinji's uncle suffer a horrible 'accident' coming home from work that very evening; rush hour traffic during the evening could be so treacherous, after all. His aunt was a lovely bit of fun after she had mourned for her husband and Keel had acted like a sympathetic charmer. He remembered the noises she made quite vividly, and enjoyed her heart-broken weeping even more; he just couldn't decide if her weeping at losing her husband or from Keel breaking her heart a second time was the sweeter music.

She would have proven troublesome-sleeping pills were so easy to overdose on, Keel reflected-if he hadn't planned ahead. Her 'apparent suicide' looked genuine enough. While Shinji was saddened at the untimely passing of his aunt and uncle, he had three new playmates to cheer him up. Everything from baseball games to The Met were used to enrich the child's lonely life. As he gave his explanations for what happened next, Keel made sure to guage everyone's reactions, making sure they accepted his version of the truth, and if they didn't, well, some 'convincing' might be in order.

"While things were good for a time, two years following being introduced to Shinji for the first time, we all travelled to Las Vegas, Nevada to take part in an international science symposium, things went from fun to FUBAR in ten seconds flat. A researcher at the American branch of Gherin - which became Nerv's second branch - stole a large canister of Transcendence Material and brought it to Las Vegas where the fool mixed it into hard narcotics like cocaine, methamphetamine's, and likewise. The drugs not only became more potent by leaps and bounds, but they had also become powerfully mutagenic.

"Everyday people began changing into creatures right out of science fiction and horror movies; twisted beasts in constant agony, monstrous abominations without wit or sense that lashed out at anything that caught their eyes, and many eyes many of these things had. Some people who overdosed died swift and horridly painful deaths, but frighteningly, did not stay dead. It was a nightmare come to life. If it had happened all at once, the four of us would have died where we stood, but it happened over the course of several months. There were rumours of things and wild stories at first, but it soon grew into something very substantial and all too real".

Keel let that sink in before he continued. He observed the reactions of everyone present, shock and dismay, disbelief on every face, save the Commander had recovered surprisingly well, Keel thought, and decided that the story could benefit from being told from another perspective. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number on his speed-dial and when it connected, he asked the person on the other end of the line if he was okay to talk. Keel's satisfied smile said as much and Keel put the person on the line on speaker and placed the phone on the conference table. Though his voice had changed dramatically, his thick Scottish brogue was still evident.

"Hello, all! I'm so sorry to hear about Doctor Akagi! As mad as I was at her, I never wanted something so fell to befall the lass. Aye, we may have had our differences, but e'en so, I respected her a lot".

"Oh, is that so?!"

Every person in the room turned to the door to see an angry Maya Ibuki storm into the room. She plunked herself down in the empty seat next to Dr. Carmine, making sure to give him a focused and heated glare. The American was going to introduce himself, but the look on Maya's face dissuaded him. Chairman Keel started to open his mouth, but Maya snapped at him.

"Shut your goddamn mouth, you super science ghoul! I know you were behind what happened to Sempai! You fabricated the whole cult abduction! You didn't like the fact that she was interfering in one of your personal projects! I don't know if your two pet goons were in on it or not", that comment caused Carmine to make an incredulous face and Gannon to bark indignation over the line,"but believe me you freak that if I find out your two goons or your pet brat had anything, and I mean ANYTHING to do with Sempai's death, I am coming after all of you! I hope you heard me, Gannon, because I know how much that boy means to you and your American buddy. If you guys in fact had nothing to do with Dr. Akagi's death, then by God I'll apologize to each and everyone of you individually and resign my commission with Nerv; If you did, however, have something to do with Sempai's death..."

Maya slid her thumb across her throat like she was dragging a knife, making the appropriate noises. She shot from her chair, stomped past Keel, who she sucker punched in the stomach knocking the wind out him, and stormed past the two surprised Section-2 agents. Keel snarled after Maya, mentally swearing a slow and painful death for the young lieutenant as soon as he was finished here at Nerv.

Not one single person in the room wasn't shocked at the usually demure lieutenant's behavior. The only person who had actually enjoyed that little outburst was the Commander who reveled at seeing some of the wind knocked out of Keel's sails, either literally or figuratively. A clearing of the throat caught everyone's attention, directing their attention to Keel's cell phone.

"That could'a gone a wee bit more on the good side'o things, I guess, but there's no fixin' it now, though. Ya know, Keel, while I think young Maya got a tad bit hot under the collar, I also think she was right on the money about her accusations, don't ya think?" Gannon over the phone. Keel was stunned, and not only because of Maya's cheap-shot. Had Gannon really found out? And if so, why had he waited, and why right now? Keel thought about it for a moment and smiled to himself as he realized that perhaps the good Doctor always knew, but simply never acted on the information he had.

"Oh, Emil. What can I say but YES. I **did, **in fact, have Dr. Akagi 'disciplined' for her recent 'indiscretions'. She interfered in affairs not her concern and was duly punished. Her punishment was so severe as to instruct those who would misbehave that such behaviour will not, under any circumstances, be tolerated. I want the Angels dead, every sane person in this room, in this city, in this courty, on God's green earth want these abominations dead, so why are people trying to stick up for them, or interfere with efforts to get rid of them? Because they are ignorant, self-serving, self-righteous little pricks who deserve only the most gruesome deaths that the darkest parts of one's imagination can conjure."

Every single person in the room glared daggers at Keel, who actually seemed amused. Captain Katsuragi looked like she was going for her side-arm. He snickered loudly enough for everybody to hear him. He concluded his little speech by saying, "Doctors Gannon and Carmine have never been a part of my 'dirty dealings', if you want to call them that. I have strove to make sure they never found out about them. They would never have even considered working for me for one second if they had found out. For all I know, though, they've been gathering evidence against me. I hold them in no ill regard, but we have work to do. How about we deal with the killer aliens trying to wipe our species off the cosmic map and we can have it out afterward? Everybody good with that? Good. Now get Pilot Ikari and Dr. Gannon back here and back to work."

Keel's tone dared anyone to speak out. When no one did, Keel smiled like he just won the lottery, turned on his heal, and strode out the door. The Deputy-Commander piped up and said, "Well, that was one of the more exciting staff meetings I've ever been through". Everyone gathered whipped their heads around and stared at the Deputy-Commander like he had grown about a dozen extra heads. He felt not the slightest bit awkward at the many eyes staring at him.

"Criminal or not, Chairman Keel has made several valid points. Firstly, We have to put all of this in-fighting aside and focus on getting the job done. Secondly, just because we have dealt with one Angel, doesn't mean that our job is anywhere close to done. Let's deal with the monsters against us without before we deal with the ones from within".

As the Deputy-Commander took a breath, Dr. Gannon's voice rose from Keel's cell phone again.

"Good friends, whatever Keel is up to, at least for the moment, it does not seem to be in conflict with Nerv's standing orders of destroying ET's nasty kin. Let's make good on the wiggle room and let's go a-huntin'!"

Nerv's Supreme Commander stood to his feet and address the assembled staff.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have lost a valuled member of our staff, an integral member of this team. We have lost two more because of rash decisions and a lack of information. I, Myself, have made snap judgments due to a personal rivalry with Chairman Lorenz Keel. I won't bother you with details, but this conflict began years ago, before Second Impact. We need every single resource we can get our hands on to combat this threat. Dr. Gannon? Can you here me?"

"Aye, Commander Ikari, I can".

"As of this moment, every charge against you and Pilot Ikari has been dropped. Your recent conduct will not be held against you in the immediate future or further down the road. Pilot Ikari did his job and we rewarded that hard work with mistrust and outright betrayal. Please forgive us. Come back to headquarters and lets get back to work".

There was quiet for a moment before a new voice came over the line. It sounded like that of a deep-voice young man, but even with the deepening of the timbre of his voice, everyone recognized Shinji Ikari soft-spoken words.

"Hi everybody. I'm sorry for making you worry, but you won't believe the changes the Dr. Gannon and I have been through. I had no idea Chairman Keel had done anything remotely like what he did to Dr. Akagi, but I always had this creepy feeling in my stomach whenever he was upset with someone. I got super-smarts just like Dr. Gannon but I couldn't see what Chairman Keel was doing. Some smart guy I turned out to be".

The Commander address Shinji directly. "Pilot Ikari? You have nothing to apologize for. Keel has done these terrible things, but like he himself said, we need to focus on defeating our great enemy and rebuilding our world. We can deal with him later. Please, return to base so that we can finish this whole tragic mess and be done with it as soon as possible. We", the Commander paused at this, "will work this out later. Come on home...Son", trying an unusually personal tact.

Shinji could be heard humming in thought, but he soon responded to the Commander's appeal, "Yes, sir...Father". The Commander actually smiled softly at that, and he then addressed his gathered staff, "Well, its about time we all get back to work. Before we do, though, Lt. Aoba?" Commander Ikari now addressed the long haired lieutenant, "Could you please make sure Lt. Ibuki doesn't do something she's going to regret...or provoke Chairman Keel into bothering her?"

"Yes, Sir, I am on it!" Lt. Aoba quickly left his chair and the briefing room, trying to pick up the angry Lt. Ibuki's trail. Lt. Hyuga was asked to try to handle things on the bridge until his comrade returned. While he seemed apprehensive, he still agreed quickly. The Commander dismissed everybody else, but not before asking Captain Kasturagi to personally oversee Pilot Ikari and Dr. Gannon's pick-up. She enthusiastically agreed and raced out the door. Dr. Carmine stayed behind and decided to talk with The Commander a moment.

"Hey, Commander Ikari?"

"Yes, Dr. Carmine? Is there something I can help you with? Something you wish to add? From what I've heard about you, you seemed far too quiet during the meeting".

"Well, Sir, there was something that both Keel and Emil, I mean Dr. Gannon, left out in regards to what happened in Las Vegas".

"Dr. Carmine, I appreciate your desire to be provide complete information, but it can wait until Pilot Ikari and your colleague return to base", the Commander replied honestly.

"That's very kind of you, Sir, but trust me, I'm not sayin' this to be snarky, but when you hear what Shinji has to say, your gonna wish I had just gotten it out of tha' way".

The Commander made an 'okay, just get on with it' face and gestured with his hands to indicate that Dr. Carmine could go ahead. The tall American scientist tilted his head back and took a deep breath before he began his story.

"Before I get into details about what happened in 'Vegas, I'd like to explain how we made _you-know-what._ Its actually a big part of what happened in 'Vegas, and everything afterward". Carmine looked from the Commander to the Deputy Commander. Both men nodded in agreement, and Carmine continued on in an almost reverential whisper.

"The stuff we made a zillion-to-one cosmic fluke, is what it was". Carmine walked over to the conference table and grabbed a large duffel bag by his chair and sat down on the table, gesturing over his small audience. He pulled out several large vials of varying-colored liquid, a laptop, and what looked like a rather thick notebook. He opened the laptop and booted it up, and while that was going on, he gestured to each of the transparent vials. He gestured to the one filled with a bright violet liquid first.

"You see, I used to be in the army, a former US Army Ranger to be precise, and saw so many good fellas die because we got over-run and out-gunned, I put my brains toward making not better weapons but better _soldiers_" Carmine began, picking up the first vial so the other two men could see it. Dr. Carmine began again.

"I did alot of awful stuff as a Ranger, some of it would'a got me shot on the spot if people found out, but that's neither here nor there. Because of the awful stuff, I left combat service and got into applied sciences and, after much hard work, created a nano-machine based combat enhancer. Basically, swarms of little robots swim through your blood stream, mass-producing themselves and when they reach critical mass, they begin entering living cells, altering DNA. In particular, they enter the part of the brain that governs the body's ability to repair itself and hack the shit out of it. Organ structure, DNA coding, your entire physiology is completely redesigned from the ground up, granting the person borderline super-biological abilities. This", He gestured to the vial, "is ingredient number three".

Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki stared bug-eyed at the American scientist when they realized what a bombshell of a clue he just dropped. DNA from the First and Second Angel had accidentally been combined in the same test chamber which was being used to test Dr. Gannon's experiemntal but very promising energy dampening technology, as they had been briefed by Chairman Keel. The two Nerv commanders now realized there was much more to Transcendence Material that Keel had ever meant to let on.

Dr. Carmine lifted another vial to eyeline, which gave of a soft glow and began again. "This is one is Emil's energy stimulants. Version nine, to be precise, and the version that was snuck into the test chamber along with a sample of my combat enhancer. All this mixed together creating such a reaction that the lab would have been blown off the map if not for three things going so very right: first, Emil's gear worked like a dream, but even so it couldn't block all that power, but we found a way to channel that same power into special mega-capacity batteries, which was thing number two, but what really saved our bacon was the fact that both unique DNA samples had been altered by my combat enhancer. The enhancer became apart of both, and found a way to safely combine both by making slight but significant alterations which made the two separate DNA samples react like they were two halves to a single whole. What resulted, even after all that other stuff went right, was something so perfectly dangerous that the word 'dangerous' doesn't even begin to describe".

Gendo Ikari listened with rapt attention while Kozo Fuyutsuki looked like he was ready to bolt. The power of the First Angel combined with the power of the Second Angel, into a form that was not only stable, it was safe for people to be around made for such promise that Commader Ikari couldn't help but smile. Carmine caught the grin and continued, "We had no idea there was a Second Angel, but it makes alot of sense one way. If there's one a' somethin', there's gonna be more. But now the power of two of the biggest dogs in the cosmic yard got mixed up into a brew that generates a form of energy that actually throws aging in reverse, it _transforms _a person into something right out'a comic books and Saturday morning cartoons, and everybody it changes looks like a dream come true. There's something no one bothers to consider though; what would happen if you inject this stuff directly into a lvin' organism? The radiation it generates can do wonders, but introducing the stuff directly into a living thing is a string of horrors".

Gendo Ikari leaned back into his chair as he listened, well away that Carmine had caught his earlier grin, and was giving this thorough explanations as a means of hoping to scare some sense into him. While he still had some very unique ideas in mind for the so-called 'Transcendence Material', he decided to keep a somber face as to make the American believe he had gotten the message.

"Let me make myself very clear here, chief: This stuff turns people into literal monsters. They cease to be human. They change. Imagine a dear friend sprouting extra arms, horns, wings, deforming into some blob of mismashed body parts thats always in pain. The poor bastards loose any sense of self, go pure instinct. Just imagine the power of an Angel given to a mindless animal. Scary, yeah? Scary doeasn't even start to cover it! For whatever reason, Shinji and Emil never lost their sense of self, but if they lose their temper..."

"They change", Kozo Fuyutsuki whispered as it hit home what they were truly dealing with. He put his fist against his mouth, whether as a contemplative gesture of to stifle his gag reflex only he knew. He took up the conversation in a chilled whisper. The other two men had to struggle to hear.

"Christ Almighty, its not just two kinds of Angel DNA mixed into this devil brew that makes it so dangerous. The energy stimulant allows a person to operate far longer than any regular human, the Angel DNA gives the person extraordinary powers, and the combat enhancer takes all of that and elevates it to a whole other level! God Dammit! Why didn't you just destroy this stuff?! And how did Shinji and Dr. Gannon have it injected?! I blame Keel right off the bat!"

The normally sedate Deputy-Commander rounded on Dr. Carmine so fast, he and Commander Ikari jumped a bit, but Dr. Carmine recovered fast and answered in a straight forward way.

"We never destroyed it because Chairman Keel ordered it preserved"

"_Oh, of course he did!"_, the deputy-commander snarled.

"That is enough, Fuyutsuki!" Commander Ikari admonished.

"To answer your second question, it was almost two whole years before we got out of Las Vegas. The armt had put the whole city under quarantine. We were stuck with mutant monsters breathin' down our neck for all that time. Shinji was scared to death, but he put on a brave face for all of us. Keel seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, and me and Emil were trying to figure out an escape plan. What happened was that the Army was plannin' on nukin' the place, but they put out an emergency evac order to anybody still human to get the Hell out. There would be several evac points, one of which was a children's hospital. Along the way, some sonovabitch with a dart gun got Shinji and Emil with you-know-what. We had just reached the hospital, when Shinji and Emil started to manifest abilites, but no transformations...yet. Well, Shinji had such an outburst of power, he leveled the enire building. All four of us were in the basement. We didn't have to dig ourselves out because there wasn't rubble through which to dig".

Both of Nerv's senior officers stared in shock at the American, never truly grasping how powerful, or dangerous, Transcendence Material really was.

"Shinji vaporized everything overhead. We still managed to get picked up, all of five minutes before the nuke did its business. The damn chopper almost crashed from the blast wave, but thankfully it had heavy EMP shielding and a damn good pilot. I have absolutely no doubt that Keel was somehow involved. I also have no doubt who else was involved; if I ever get My hands on Amanda Krane, she's gonna die _slow!_"

There was silence for a moment, before Commander Ikari spoke up.

"Just one more question for you Dr. Carmine, if I may, since your in such a forth-coming mood?"

"Shoot".

Gendo Ikari smirked at his choice of words, asking "Why is it then, that Pilot Ikari and Your colleague, Dr. Gannon have any measure of control at all?"

"Oh, that's an easy one to answer, Hoss. We _all _got exposed to Transcendence Material radiation; Keel, me, and Emil got zapped during the accident that led to its creation, which makes sense, but then of course your asking yourself how did Shinji get zapped. Even easier to answer, I'm sad to say".

Dr. Carmine stopped for a moment, as though to make sure he had hissmall audiences atention, or he was bracing himself as he was about to relay some very personal – and damning – information. It was both, in fact.

"I'm the guy who zapped him".

_Author's Notes:_ Well folks, that was alot longer in coming than I had originally intended. Please forgive me! I have two jobs now, so I'm screwed both ways (Please no raunchy one-liners...its bad enough I use them!). Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed reading this chapter as I have writing it for you! See you next time in "Revelations, Revolutions, and Retards Galore!"


	7. Revelations, Revolutions, and Retards

**Disclaimer:** NGE and all related characters belong to their respective creators and companies. I own only, and I stress _only _original characters and scenarios.

**Author's Notes:** Welcome one, welcome all to "Revelations, Revolutions, and Retards Galore". If you thought the previous chapter dropped some bombshells, you'd better jump back into your foxhole because we're only just getting started!

Supreme Nerv Commander Gendo Ikari and Nerv Deputy-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki both felt their jaws drop at Dr. Carmine's admission. The man just admitted to exposing Pilot Ikari to a potentially hazardous and alien form of energy, despite what it did to himself, seemingly without doing any kind of research into what it would do to a child! Was the man delusion, crazy? Was he stupid or negligent? What the Hell was wrong with this guy?!

Deputy-Commander Fuyutsuki felt his hand whip to his concealed side-arm, but the Commander quickly grabbed his wrist and sternly shook his head "No". The two men exchanged heated looks, but they both turned their attention back to the ghostly pale American who was looking right at the two of them. He smiled sadly and walked back toward them as he reached under his coat as though to pull out a gun, but what he pulled out was a rather large glass bottle of Jack Daniels No.7©. He walked over to his abandoned bag and after rummaging through it, pulled out three large tumbler glasses. He placed the glasses at three places along the table and gestured to the two men to be seated. The Commander arched a brow while Fuyutsuki looked a bit thrown.

"You want a full and proper explanation?" Carmine began, "We're emptying that damn bottle".

He popped the cork off the bottle and poured a half serving into each glass. The other men turned to each other, but decided that they could actually get a straight answer from the American without violence. If necessary, it would come later.

As they took their seats at the table, each man approached his first drink differently; Fuyutsuki swirled the drink in his glass and breathed in the aromas like a wine connoisseur, Gendo appraised what he saw and weighed pros and cons, while Carmine simply shook his head and downed his drink like he taking shots. The other two men looked at him like he was completely nuts and looked at each other before shrugging and following suit. While the Commander hummed appreciatively, Kozo almost coughed up a lung. He glared at the other two and asked, "What?" trying to restrain his coughing fit.

Carmine raised his glass to the Deputy-Commander after filling it again and slowed pulled on it. As he did, a wistful expression crossed his face, and he began his odd 'explanation'.

"Well, fellas, its like this: When we first met Shinji, he was a mess, as seeing his mom die the way she did, never mind what being _abandoned _by your dad would do to ya", Carmine began, giving the elder Ikari a pointedly dirty look. " We started off slow; we introduced ourselves, of course, didn't want to be rude, and we started asking small questions, stuff you wouldn't think twice about. We asked these questions of Shinji's Aunt first. Simple stuff like how your day was going, what do you do for a living, that sort of stuff. After about an hour or so, 'cause she really didn't trust us much to start with, we asked her to ask questions about us. I was a bit behind so Emil and Lorenz started things off, and considerin' our weird eyes, mistrust is something easily understandable", he pointed at his own bizarre eyes that looked more like they belonged in the head of some huge dog.

"The meeting started off kinda on the bad foot 'cause Shinji got a hello hug from Emil; no creepy stuff going on, but his Aunt gave Emil a piece of her mind and Emil mouthed off. Keel jumped in and acted as referee. For over an hour, we talked to her first trying to convince her we weren't the bad guys but we eventually got a chance to talk to Shinji. He was very shy, closed off, and it took us a couple of _days _to get him to really open up but when he did start to open up, we each took turns doing good old fashioned fun stuff with him; everything from baseball to basketball, colouring books and story telling, whatever it took to get him to open up, to just be a happy little boy again. When he really started to heal, in his head and his heart, we helped him confront how his mom died, and we told him it was okay to cry. That poor little guy weeped like a water fountain after we helped him him get past all the blocks in his head. He cried himself to sleep in Emil's arms. I carried him up to bed and tucked him in, and despite what he confronted that day, he slept good and dreamed good dreams. Why? Because we were right there with him, talking to him, consoling him, just bein' a shoulder to cry on, tellin' him it was okay to cry, that even after all that had happened, his mom never stopped lovin' him".

"Mind you", he continued, "We left out the part that his mom _intentionally _got absorbed by Unit-01, but he was too young to hear that at the time".

Gendo Ikari almost choked on his drink. Yui had _wanted _to be absorbed?! That was ludicrous! Wasn't it? She had honestly hoped to be able to _pilot _the Evangelion instead of Shinji. She had wanted her son kept out of it, but had dreaded what might happen it it failed. Intentionally absorbed? BULLSHIT!...Wasn't it?

Gendo had always known Yui had had serious misgivings about using Children for pilots, and had tried to avoid such future action, inevitable as it seemed. She had meant to protect Shinji from a life of turmoil and strife, but with this new revelation, Carmine made it seem that a life of turmoil and strife was _exactly _what Yui had in mind. Such a colossal blow would render Shinji incapable of really connecting to anyone, save the very person he had thought lost. This very trauma would allow him to connect to his mother who had become, in essence and in literal, the empowering core of the Evangelion unit. That very same trauma would make him a natural pilot, but also a socially stagnated and emotionally challenged introvert. A cruel stroke of genius that while solving one problem, created many more.

Gendo Ikari downed what was left of his whiskey and prepared to give Carmine a piece of his mind, starting by introducing Carmine's mandible to his left fist, when the enigmatic American pulled out what looked like an old journal, with the Kanji for Yui's name elegantly embroidered on the front cover. Gendo slowly took the book, despite his own misgivings and earlier denial, hoping against hope that he would find some entry, some passionate expression against the future Project-E, but instead he found, among a great many other things, this:

"_My name is Dr. Yui Ikari, and I deserve to die. _

_I am going to ruin not only my only child's emotional and psychological development, all for the sake of creating a lasting monument to mankind. I'm going to ruin my beloved husband as well. He has shown me nothing but love, understanding, and a level of devotion that is beginning to scare me. _

_Perfect. _

_He would burn this world to ash for me, and that is exactly the kind of mind-set that I need for this plan to work._

_I know that if my treasured son, or my loving husband, or, God help me, both of them discover and read this journal, then I will lose the only two people in this miserable world I have ever truly given a damn about. I hate this sad and damaged world, and since I have discovered that our time, humanity's time, is done, I have no compunctions about ending it. I, however, am not some doomsday loon seeking to end it because it is God's will, or some other such nonsense. The Third Impact we will engineer will reduce all of man to LCL, quickly, painlessly, and instantaneously. _

_My son, my darling baby boy will become a _**_god_**_, and from there on then, he will be forever free from pain, from sadness, because everything will be for him to create, and recreate, to his hearts content._ _Unit-01 will become a great monument in space that will tell others who pass this way that mankind existed; it will be when all of the art and monuments of Earth have crumbled to dust, it will be when the sun itself burns out and dies._

_My name is Dr. Yui Ikari, and I deserve to die"._

Gendo Ikari screamed in rage as he threw the journal across the room. He stopped himself from throwing the glass of whiskey, though. He filled it and downed the glassful, repeating six times. He sighed angrily and address the American scientist, "Its all true, isn't it?"

The American nodded sadly. Gendo leaned back heavily in his chair as he took notice of the Deputy-Commander's sad, yet _knowing _look.

Kozo Fuyutsuki coughed and said, "A couple of days before the initial test of Unit-01, Yui told me her plans and what she wanted to accomplish. I was a stupid, foolish, _weak_ old man because I let a crush on a former student stop me from calling the nearest psychiatric hospital and committing her. I was, no _am _even worse than her because I could have stopped a very good portion of this misery and I choked".

The Commander made a scoffing noise and shot back with, "Dear Kozo, you are far better than you think, simply because you gave damn, because you truly regret what has passed, and sir, If I may be so bold, my old sensei, you want to make it right somehow. So, Dr. Carmine", Ikari asked as he turned back to the odd American, "What else have you to tell us? I imagine that your recent revelations would be hard to top".

Carmine tilted his head back as he swallowed another pull of whiskey, glancing at the bottle, realizing that, it was in fact, now empty. He had one more revelation in fact.

"When I was a colonel in the US Army, in command of a squad of dedicated, go-for-broke Army Rangers, I earned the name 'Red Ranger of The Deep South'. Just check into American history during 1997 and you'll find it".

Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki both paled at that particular name as the American got up and began to walk away, stopping and turning to face the two shocked men. He whispered, "I murdered every living person in five American Deep South towns".

Misato was speeding toward an address she had received in a text from Dr. Gannon over her cell phone. She was excited about seeing Shinji again, and right now she genuinely didn't care if he looked like some kind of monster or whatever, she'd be glad to just have the kid and his crazy guardian back with her and okay. She had a lot of things to work out, but she knew that she was sick of doing it on her own. After what happened to Ritsuko, she realized her judgement could very well be impaired, trained to deal with emotional loss or not. She and Ritsuko had been like sisters in college. She still could not get her head around the revelation that Ritsuko had been under orders when she tried to sabotage Dr. Gannon's project, that she had done something like that at all. Well, Misato realized sadly, the idea that Ritsuko had done something untoward was not so much a stretch as she would like to believe. She had known that there had been things going on at Nerv behind the scenes, but every time she had tried to get even so much as a glimpse, powers that be would politely tell her to bugger off, or the evidence would be cleaned up, but Misato recognized _when _a crime scene had been cleaned, and found a great deal of cleaning-up traces had been done. As much as a mystery enthralled her, she knew that she had to focus on the here and now.

As she arrived at the GPS coordinates from the text, she realized that it was the same warehouse where the mutilated Dr. Akagi had been found. Misato felt her blood inadvertently rise to a boil as she took in the dilapidated building.

_'Why the Hell are we meeting here?! Is this some kind of sick joke?!'_

Misato whipped into the parking lot, screeched to a halt, and practically leaped out of her car, her sidearm drawn. She wasn't taking any chances whatsoever. She slowly approached the door in a reaver stance, sidearm at the ready, looking down the sights for anything or anyone who appeared hostile. The door was wide open and she saw what looked like a cheap folding table set up in the scorched warehouse. The huge and transformed Dr. Gannon was seated at the table, sans chair as he was now so big, he did not need a chair to look down on the table-top. One of his multiple arms was writing with an old fashioned quill in a very old looking book, another hand held a cell phone to what Misato thought was his left ear, she really couldn't tell anymore with...whatever Dr. Gannon had turned into, a pair was typing furiously on a laptop that had a slew of USB cables connected to it, running off the table and well off to one side out of eyesight. As the Captain entered the building, she heard the Scottish doctor talking to someone over the phone.

"Yes, of course its all on schedule. I'm no spring chicken anymore, Grigori, but I can still use a bloody laptop, you Russian nit! What'a ya mean, ya never meant no offence? Ya bloody well call me a 'senile old goat' as a way'o sayin' 'hello'? Ya daft ol' bear! You can kiss me arse, you ugly lump'a dung, and bloody well remember yer friggin' manners! Yer two decades too young to go tryin' ta crack wise wit me! Good day to you sir!"

_***click!***_

"Fuckin' Russian bear! Just you wait until I see ya again!" Gannon remarked as he dropped the phone on the desk rather roughly and went back to work, a fully dressed and standing Shinji Ikari massaging the bridge of his nose as though trying to ward off a headache finally taking notice of the Captain as she entered the warehouse proper.

She was just about to ask Gannon what he was doing here when she took stock of the large amount of equipment set up in the place, and one particular piece of gear made her heart skip a beat. It was a large cylindrical chamber made of what Misato thought was some kind of heavy glass. It was filled with what appeared LCL, but the _person _floating in the LCL made her shriek in shock and alarm.

"_RITSUKO?!"_

Both of the Nephilim men all but hit the roof at the Captains startled scream, but were soon backing away from a spitting mad Misato Katsuragi who was cursing the air blue, swearing terrible pain on the both of them for pulling such a sick stunt. Trying to clone Ritsuko and replace her? _Oh, Hell no!_ She levelled her sidearm at the chamber and was about to fire when she heard Dr. Gannon yell from his work table, "No, don't, Lass, I beg ye! That's nay a clone! _That's the original!"_

Misato whipped around to face the monstrous being that used to be a kindly Scotsman, but now was something..._other_. She aimed right between his primary eyes and snarled, _"Explain!"_

Emil Gannon did exactly that.

"Misato, I knew that Dr. Akagi was bein' targeted, long before I came to Japan with Shinji. Some 'colleagues' shall we call 'um were supposed to rescue her. They did. What was tortured beyond all reason and decency was, in fact, the clone. I altered the lass so no one would be the wiser. Keel thinks I made this half-angel clone of Akagi as some kind of twisted lab assistant/ fuck buddy for him. This is no engineered slave girl, believe you me. This is the original Ritsuko Akagi. Transformed into a Nephilim like me and Shinji, but with no _you-know-what _added in. A high dose of energy from _that_ changed her right enough. She was given special implants to keep Keel out of her noggin' and her secret, along with her life, safe and sound".

Misato felt like falling over face first. As a matter of a fact she did. Both the conscious Nephilim in the room face-palmed themselves. Shinji, because his mentor had just dumped a great deal of information right into Misato's lap without giving her any kind of brace, and Dr. Gannon himself because he went way too much into detail, plus a simple suggestion to _not _let Misato know until _much later_ was completely forgotten. They were counting on everyone's complete ignorance to complete the deception. Now that someone knew, even someone who could keep a secret this important without fail, the whole plan to gather evidence against Keel to present to the United Nations Security Council and have Lorenz Keel removed as the Instrumentality Chairman could be jeopardized. Shinji went over to Misato and turned her over, pulling a small bottle of smelling salt out of his pocket and waved it under the Captain's nose. Her nose immediately crinkled and she coughed and sputtered as she came to.

She had an odd dreamy look on her face as she looked up at Shinji and smiled at him coyly. She actually snuggled up to him and sexily cooed, "You're pretty!" Shinji cocked his head at the genuinely off-hand comment, looked to his mentor who shrugged his shoulders and chuckled like he had heard a great joke and walked off.

"Uh, Doc? Can I get a hand here? She's not letting me go, and...holy crap, she's fondling my butt! Get your ugly putz face back here, haggis! Oi! Watch the hands lady!" Misato was giggling to herself. She was actually quite sober and alert and thought a little payback was in order. She'd have a good tantrum later. Right now, she wanted to get some "Nephy-Feel".

She made a happy moaning noise, which caused Shinji's face to turn a remarkable shade of scarlet red, which somehow got even redder as Misato tightened her grip and happily chirped, "Mine!"

As Shinji and the lovely Captain got 'better acquainted', Dr. Gannon made some adjustments on the main console of the stasis chamber, monitoring Dr. Akagi's rebirth into a Nephilim. She wouldn't develop the black-blue eyes he and shinji had; well, at least not right away. She'd had what he thought was the more 'traditional' red eyes like those of Rei Ayanami, but, like his eyes did, would change as well. He knew that without Transcendance Material being directly injected into her body, that she absolutely would not go through the horrible transformations that he and Shinji had gone through. Speaking of whom, he looked over and almost passed out when he saw that Captain Katsuragi now had her legs wrapped around Shinji's waist quite provocatively and Shinji had handfuls of her lushous dark indigo hair.

Gannon quickly grabbed his cell phone, thumbed on the camera function and recorded the two young people having the make-out session on the dirty warehouse floor. He knew that when Shinji got excited, he gave off a pheromone that was a powerful aphrodisiac. A completely unintentional upgrade, he never took advantage of it. Why? Because the stupid chemical worked on _him _too! Gannon was ashamed at himself because Shinji was now naked from the waist down and the Captain was down to her black lace panties. He had a dart gun loaded with a system cleanser that would knock them both out and cleanse both their systems of the pheromone. There was a glaring omission though: He had left the stupid thing back at the airport! Damn security personnel!

If he tried to forcibly break it up, Shinji would attack him and possible hurt Misato and Ritsuko, both accidentally mind you, but he wouldn't be so kind to Emil himself. He knew that Shinji and Misato both would never be comfortable around each other again if this went as far as Gannon knew it would, but he didn't want to causes any kind of violence that could get innocent people hurt or damage the overall plan for taking down Keel.

Emil Gannon had made up his mind, and damn the consequences! He would just have to live with his decision. He went over to his desk, hooked up an HDMI cable to his phone and connected it to his laptop. After getting an impromptu show that lasted over _three whole hours _(Katsuragi was never gonna walk right again, if ever!) he uploaded the video he recorded to YouTube©, pulled out an air mattress from the crate by the table, inflated it, laid down, and took an hour long nap, muttering something about "Damn horny kids!" He never realized that Ritsuko had prematurely awoken. She had both her hands placed against the glass and was looking fonding at her old friend as Shinji continued to pleasure her.

Ritsuko smiled warmly at her friends good fortune, but knew that this was going to be a one-time fling. Shinji was a sweet boy with some rough edges (not to mention gorgeous!), but there was only one man for Misato, and Misato had broken up with him to protect him from being hurt by Misato's quest for revenge. Confuscious once said, "Before embarking on a journey of revenge, one must first dig two graves". Misato never wanted to dig a grave for her college love, but yet found she could not let him stay with her. They had spent an entire week together one last time, trying to cement the good memories with passion and lust while at the same time trying to bury the pain.

Ritsuko Akagi had her own pains to bury, but she would confront them first. She would take this second chance and run with it. She'd start by helping a cetain blue-haired puppet become an actual person, and then she'd try to atone for everything else in due course. Before she nodded off back to sleep, she had two thoughts go through her mind. Firstly, she wondered what Keel was going to think when all was said and done that his two favored scientists had outwitted him. The second thought was a bit off-the-wall, even for her: _"When are those two ever going to stop?!"_

Her musings were interrupted when a ghostly pale young man walked through the door and gaped at the goings-on on the floor. He put his fists on his hips and shook his head from side to side.

"Man, oh man!" He spoke with a distinctly American East Coast Accent. "Doc Carmine ain't gonna believe this shit!"

"Hey Forbes! What are you...holy shit! What the hell is this?!" This new voice belonged to Nerv's long-haired Lieutenant Shigeru Aoba. What made Ritsuko start was that Shigeru had a wicked black eye and his left arm in a sling. She wondered what had happened, but since she had seemingly been 'rescued', she could wait for later for answers. She realized there was a third person right behind the man called Forbes, and the sight of this person made her smile quite widely.

It was Maya Ibuki. As Maya got close enough, she looked like her heart was going to break anew, but clasped her hands in front of her face, dropped to her knees and quietly weeped in joy, whispering, "Praise God, Praise God. You gave me my Sempai back!" She then promptly passed out. Forbes just managed to catch her before she face-planted on the concrete floor. Forbes stared incredulously at the young women as he gently picked her up.

"After all the crap she put us through, _now _she decides to pass out?!"

Shigeru's answer to that was to haul off with his good arm and sock Forbes right in the back of the head, getting a high-pitched yelp out of the pale man.

As Ritsuko Akagi stared bug-eyed at the whole bizarre goings-on, she mentally cursed, _"Retards! I work with a bunch of flaming retards!"_

Nerv's Supreme Commander stood on catwalk directly in front of Evangelion Unit-01. He was smoking a Cuban cigar, something his 'dear wife' had hated with a passion. He blew out an impressive cloud of smoke and took the cigar out of his mouth for a moment. He looked down at the floor, as though ashamed of what he was going to say, but in reality making sure what he was going to say came out right.

It was simple, straight-forward, and honest.

It hurt like Hell.

It felt great.

"I thought I loved you, Yui Ikari. I even changed my name for you. I devoted myself to an insane ideal, all for you. I hurt and abandoned our son, all for you. I ruined myself for you. I schemed and planned and manipulated, used and abused, all for you".

The next words were easier to say, but no less painful.

Gendo _liked _this kind of pain.

"_I hate you! _I am going to strive to make sure our son gets to have a great life. I've found a way for the whole human race to make _our own _Eden. Why try to go back to a withered old brier patch, when we can have a lush new paradise? We can give back to our race everything we thought we had lost! We will make our own destiny. Make the rules? Oh, no. We will make a whole new game. Goodbye, Yui. I'll never speak to you again, but for one more thing: mankind _will _survive, and _you _will fail".

Gendo Rokubungi turned and walked away from Unit-01, knowing that Yui could activate Unit-01 and kill him. She didn't though. Gendo had won, and he knew it. How? Because he could just make out soft, defeated weeping coming from Unit-01. As the door sealed behind him, the soft weeping exploded into a heart-broken scream.

No one heard a thing.

Lorenz Keel was speaking with the entire SEELE Council. What made this meeting different from the others was that they all met in person, for one thing. Another thing was that they were in broad daylight, out in the open, completely exposed. They had no fear of prying eyes because of the location they chose for this particular meeting.

Chernobyl had a reputation after all.

"Well, Mr. Chairman? How's things at Nerv? Calmed down, or do we have to be more 'thorough' in our house cleaing?" This question came from a striking fellow of Mediterranean birth, classical Greek features made even more so by his ghostly white skin and eyes so dark, he made Keel's eyes seem almost luminous by comparison.

Keel addressed the man with a chuckle as he answered.

"No, Alexander. As much fun as that would be, any further action of the sort would simply turn the Nerv personnel against us completely, and we would lose out on a great deal of resources. While we do plan on a thorough clean sweep after the Angels have been eliminated, for right now they are useful, and should be allowed to be so". The Greek man looked depressed somewhat but a ghostly pale, pudgy man of Korean nationality spoke up in a vibrant tone.

"Alex, old friend, let us not focus on the negative, but the positive! Let us watch a show from our friends in Japan and our alien nemesis, and after, you can come over to my house for some 'relaxation'. How about it?"

"Thank you, Jong-il! I would very much enjoy that!"

Keel smiled as Alexander cheered up. That Jong-il would offer his home to those he had once considered hated enemies and arch-rivals. The North Korean Supreme Leader and recently Greek Prime Minister now acted like old friends.

Ah, the wonders of a psychic link!

"Gentlemen, let us bring this meeting to order, please. Now, how goes the construction of Unit-03 and Unit-04? Well, I trust?" Keel now motioned to a tall Hispanic fellow with platinum blonde hair and red eyes reminiscent of 'traditional' Nephilim. This man was Hector Trejo Juarez, the United States of America Secretary of Defence and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He was directly overseeing the construction of the two American made Evangelion units. He smiled a smile full of sharp, pointed teeth as he gave his report to the Seele Council.

"Senors, I have good news. As per Chairman Keels orders, Unit-03 and Unit-04 were 'altered' using Transcendance Material. Both Units are now _pure _Adam/Lillith hybrids. The biological upgrades are well and truly finished, and we are, quite literally, putting the final coats of paint on them. Every single upgrade that was proposed, theorized, suggested, and originally implemented in the first place are now active. They will be so overwhelmingly powerful, that not even an army of 'original-type' Eva's would be able to defeat them in open, direct combat".

The response to this report was resounding "Congratulations!" and "Well done" from the assembled members. With two of the "Transcendant Evangelions" ready to go, they could now convert the other units that made up the Mass Production Eva series into T-Eva's, and they would bring about a new world order, one where mankind was no longer plagued from within by petty, greedy, shallow malcontents who ruin the good things simply because they think their God's gift to the world. No more brutish thugs who think vilence is the only answer to a problem, when a simple few words are all they may need to solve it.

No more abusive idiots, no more hate-mongers, no more scammers and schemers, no more religious crazies, no more losers of any kind.

Perfect people, perfect behaviour, perfect planning.

The Council had become perfect beings, or at least as close to perfect as a flesh-and-blood being could become, and now they were going to completely re-envision what it meant to be _human. _They were going to take homo-sapiens, or "Man of Wisdom" and make him _Neo-Sapien_: "Man of The New". The Council wasn't just going to revitalize man's ability to reproduce and to change and adapt. They weren't just going to get rid of the scum of the Human race.

They were going to evolve each and every person on Earth that they deemed worthy into beings fit to be gods.

Every god needed a fitting army to serve them, though. Now all they had to do really, as the Angels were feld one by one, was to build it.

Refine it.

Perfect it.

Becomings gods was going to be a trip!

**Author's Notes:** Well, folks, I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the previous ones, but I thoguht it was high time to set the stage. Next chapter, Shinji pays a visit to Rei Ayanami in the hospital, and tries to get her to open up, Unit-00 upgrades get underway, and we get to see how all the odd stuff we just read through happened! Stay tuned for "Some Flash-Backs, Some Flash-Forwards, and Just Plain Flash".


	8. Flash-Backs, Flash-Forwards, and Flash

**Disclaimer:** NGE and all related characters are the property of their respected creators and companies. I own only, and I stress only, the original characters and scenarios I have presented herein.

**Author's Notes:** Questions that arose last chapter will be answered, Shinji and Misato hash out what happened and work through some _very _awkward feelings, Shinji meets Rei for the first time and introduces himself, and Unit-00's upgrades begin, along with more shenanigans! Now, unto "Flash-Backs, Flash-Forwards, and Just Plain Flash".

Misato was ashamed of herself. She had just woken up from a very pleasant sleep which was brought about by a very passionate love-making session with the transformed Shinji Ikari. She had taken advantage of him, a teenager, even though he looked like an adult! He become quite beautiful after his most recent transformation, but when she had teased him with some rather intimate touchy-feely, she had flipped her proverbial lid and screwed his brains out and vice versa. She had never felt so thoroughly pleasured, but now she wishes she could take it all back. Shinji had literally swept her off her feet (okay, a cold concrete floor of an old warehouse) and had taken her to a small but well kept motel, where things got hot and heavy and very very real. He had waited on her hand and foot afterward, but he tried to avoid eye contact as much as possible. Like he was the one at fault.

She could never blame him.

She knew about that stupid hormone thing long before. She should have acted like a grown up and not teased Shinji like that. She had read a small novel sized file on Shinji's changes. His hormones were in such constant flux, the slightest stressor or stimulation causes incredible mood swings that Shinji can only control through massive doses of psychotropic drugs, in the form of blue-green gel capsules he takes every week. When he takes his medication, his behaviour is rather normal, if not a bit surly, but what teenager isn't?

Unfortunately, without said pills, the kind of berserker event that Misato witnessed when Shinji piloted Unit-01 for the first time would be a frightening norm. Now he'd never be able to be himself around her, always being reminded of their little tryst, which really wasn't little at all. He'd always be walking around on eggs shells whenever she was around him, and he'd feel like the guilty party for this whole mess.

_'Way to go, Katsuragi! The poor kid can barely keep these crazy mood swings in check as is, but now you've thrown a whole sacks of monkey wrenches into carefully prepared plans to help Shinji through it all. What's your next trick? Getting the kid killed?! You've ruined a good part of his life that he's __never going to be able to take back or do over. I hope your proud of yourself!'_ Misato angrily chastised herself.

She was sat up in bed while Shinji napped in a chair across the room, fully clothed. She admired just how handsome he was; swept back, spiky hair that was, somehow, inky black again. High cheek bones accentuated by a sharp, strong jaw. Almond shaped eyes beneath razor sharp eye-brows and a straight, elegant nose which rested above a full, sexy mouth that Misato remembered quite vividly was gifted at kissing. A long limbed, muscular physique that belonged to a body-builder/super-model. The ghostly white skin made him all the more eye-catching. Appearing around his early twenties, Shinji was going to be fending off young women with a baseball bat!

If Shinji never found that special someone, or that someone never showed him any appreciation, Misato thought greedily, than she'd be happy to be show Shinji the kind of affection he deserved on a more _permanent_ basis. A small, but very adamant part of her brain screamed, "MINE!" She was sorely tempted to listen. She also knew that if anything, anything at all was going to come of this, then she would let it happen in its own time.

If it happened at all.

Speaking of Shinji, he was stirring in his chair, a deceptively peaceful smile on his handsome face. He opened sleepy eyes and focused them on the woman who sitting up in bed and had the bed sheets pulled to her chest. He smiled a lazy wicked grin at her and licked his lips, like he was planning on eating her. He stood to his full height which now well over six and a half feet tall. Considering his size, physique, and the combination of faded and torn Denim jeans, black biker boots, white tank top, with black leather armbands around both biceps, he pulled off "_bad boy_" very well. His eyes were..._'oh no!'_

Misato started as she realized that the whites of Shinji's eyes were now oily black again. He noticed how upset she had suddenly become, walked over to the dresser near the bed, looked in the attached mirror and growled low as he swore.

"Goddamn son of a bitch! Just once, I'd like my eyes to go back to being normal again and stay that way!" As Shinji dropped his face from his reflection, Misato couldn't help but notice how his body had tensed up and his muscles seemed to go taut. She slid out of bed, wrapping the sheet around her body as a make-shift robe and walked behind the troubled super human teenager. She leaned against his back and wrapped her arms around his waist, rubbing his stomach in a way she hoped conveyed sympathy, not arousal. Shinji growled low and softly whispered, "I'm okay Misato. You don't have to worry; this is something I've had yo put up with for a few years now".

Misato responded with a bit more venom than she had meant to when she said, "You shouldn't have had to put up with this shit in the first place!"

Shinji turned to look at the lovely Captain from over his shoulder and clasped his larger hand over hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. He turned around and returned her embrace with a gentle hug. He lifted her eyes to his and saw the beginnings of tears in her eyes and softly wiped them away with a knuckle of his hand. He lowered his head till their foreheads touched and he whispered, "Thank you Misato for caring about me. For simply giving a damn; you have no idea how much that means to me". He then released her and took several steps back. Misato thought she had done something wrong again, but Shinji lifted a hand to stop her.

"Misato, if we both don't stop, we're just going to be at each other again, and this time I don't know if I can control myself enough to stop myself from hurting you...again".

Misato had no idea what he was talking about. He had been aggressive, but not hurtful, passionate, and yet gentle. When had he hurt her?

"When I lost control before, I ended up screwing your brains out. If I lose control again, I won't be able to stop, or even slow down. I will become like an animal, and that is NOT innuendo. I could end up seriously hurting you, and that is something I will not let happen. You may say this wasn't my fault, but I should never have let you get so close. I know you were only teasing, but instead of just backing off, I acted like a douche and thought with my hard-on instead of my head. I'm sorry". Shinji spoke softly, his arms wide, like he was praying, his eyes cast downward. He felt a gentle hand touch his face, and had to fight like a bastard not to lose control.

Misato made him look up into her eyes, and Shinji thought to himself, "I could get lost in those chocolate brown peepers". She smiled warmly and said, also softly, "You have nothing to be sorry FOR. Please remember that". She slowly turned away from him and went over to the small bureau where her clothes had been neatly folded and lain. She smiled as she kept thinking about how considerate Shinji was to her. She heard his heavy footfalls as he left the room to give her some privacy, but if she had been really honest with herself, she would have demanded he watch. She watched him through the window of the room as he stepped outside onto the motels second floor balcony. He stood ramrod straight and tilted his head back, as though letting out a long, frustrated breath. Misato continued to get ready as he stood outside.

Misato, while a bit melancholy, still managed to smile as she thought about how she got to this particular point.

She also wondered what everybody else was doing.

Shigeru Aoba was not a happy man. His broken arm was now out of that impromptu sling and now in a proper cast, while an antiseptic-laced bandage was tightly wrapped around his left knee. It had been well over a day since he had been injured, but the memory was still very fresh. While he now had some time off of work, he was still rather angry. Not simply mad, but downright angry. He and the American Section 2 agent Forbes had gone to Maya Ibuki's apartment the day after she had angrily stormed out of a Nerv briefing about Dr. Akagi's apparent acts of betrayal and her subsequent abduction and murder.

Sufficit to say, she was in no mood for visitors when they arrived at her apartment, especially the American for whatever reason, though he had a few ideas initially, and now understood quite well, thanks to said American.

Shigeru had been installed at Nerv by order of the Seele council to keep a close eye on the goings on there, as per Chairman Lorenz Keel's direct orders. They were a good crew to work with, but when you work for Seele as a spy, you had better get your head clear, or you'd well end up dead.

As his cast-immobilized arm continued to itch like crazy, Shigeru being unable to scratch it, he tried to distract himself as he thought back as to how he had gotten hurt in the first place...

_Yesterday Afternoon..._

Shigeru had just picked up Forbes, the American Section 2 agent from Nerv headquarters and was now heading towards Maya's Apartment building, hoping that they would be able to calm Maya down. Shigeru had always had a gift for getting inside of peoples heads without them knowing, and after giving Maya a quick read as she flipped her lid at Commander Ikari, he got a bad feeling in his stomach that she was going to do something rather drastic. Maya had always been a demure, soft spokemn young women who, Shigeru was quick to admit, at least to himself, that he had a rather substantial crush on. He knew that Maya's heart belonged elsewhere though, but as long as Maya was happy, he could live with it. Now that person was gone and Maya was a wreck. He may work for Keel, but when he got the chance, he'd gut that murder happy freak.

Forbes was an odd duck, to be sure. His ghostly white skin and hair (not to mention those frigging weird eyes) made him look like something other than human, though he still was, just not a_ normal _one. He had heard whispers of what theses so-called Nephilim could do, but instead of scaring him, he got a big kick out of it. Genuine super powers, man! He wish he could get in on that shit! He wondered what it was like, a being that transcended regular humanity?

He decided to try breaking the ice with the American.

"Any idea what we're going to be running into when we get to Maya's apartment? She seemed really upset, and that is as blatant an understatement as I can make. What's your take?"

The American seemed rather reluctant to give any kind of answer, but when Shigeru thought to just drop the matter, Forbes spoke up, "Lt. Ibuki lost someone _very _dear to her, from what I've been told. If you had seen what was left of Doctor Akagi, you'd probably understand her rage better, but there's no helping it now. She was missing all of her limbs...she had been mutilated, and she was still alive, only kept that way by Frankenstein life-support equipment. I put her out of her misery, and now Maya has to suffer because of it. I hate myself, and will until the day I die. I'm almost fifty years old", that last statement making Shigeru jerk and quickly glance at the Nephilim, "but I look way younger, thanks to that accident at the old Gherin base back home. I look like a fallen angel, one pretty young thing had said to me. My Wife thought I was the devil and took our kids and ran"

Shigeru had no idea what to say to that, so when Forbes started talking again, he decided to keep quiet.

"Maya, ya see, she sees me as what took her mentor, her mother-figure away from her. She's got a lot of reasons to hate my guts".

"I disagree".

Shigeru's simple statement made the Nephilim whip around and look at him incredulously.

"I heard what you said, quite clearly, but listen: if you _did not _regret what you did, _then_ she'd have a bunch of reasons for hating you, but you regret what you did. You hurt yourself to put an end to someone else's pain. You didn't want to do it, but you saw it as necessary. I saw the video feed from the rescue teams helmet cams. I _did _ see what was left of Dr. Akagi. If placed in your position, I would have made the same choice and accepted Maya's hatred myself. I know this isn't going to make you feel all rainbows and sunshine, but please man, think about what I said".

Shigeru, having said his piece, went back to driving the Nerv SUV down the busy streets. He didn't expect Forbes to sigh and smile at him.

"Thanks kid. That means a lot to me, it really does. How'd you get so smart?"

"Just attentive, I guess", Shigeru replied with an easy smile, wondering what Forbes would think if he told him it was in his job description as a spy. The uncomfortable air being displaced, the two men relaxed a bit as they planned how they were going to approach the distraught Lieutenant. They had several ideas, and if anyone else had heard them, they'd have thought the two men were going to commit a serious crime or two!

Simply knocking on her front door seemed like such a straight forward idea, but Forbes had a very unique ability among the many he had acquired which, quite remarkably, was the power to actually read a persons mind. Telepathy! Wow! Shigeru thought it was rather cool; what Forbes saw in Maya's mind, which he relayed to Shigeru, was most certainly not.

Maya was going for a gun.

After Shigeru heard that, he stomped on the accelerator and tore through traffic like a man possessed. After almost causing several accidents (and outrunning the police!) the two men arrived at Maya's apartment building and nearly tore the doors off the SUV they leapt out so quick. They sprinted through the door, almost bowling over a young couple, the boyfriend mouthing off at the two nerv personnel who paid them no heed and stormed upstairs to the floor where Maya's Apartment was located. Forbes and Shigeru almost smacked into each other when Forbes screeched to halt in front of Maya's door. He held up a hand and Shigeru got the idea.

Something was up.

Forbes slowly slowly approached the door, but as he did, a horrible stench hit his enhanced sense of smell like a hammer. He had to fight down his gag reflex and force himself to approach the door. Using his amazing mind powers, he scanned the room, looking for anything alive. He was very relieved to find that Maya was still alive, though her mind set was so particualrly disturbed, Forbes closed his minds eye and shook his head, instantly realizing that Maya was not going to be alive for very long.

He quickly gestured for Shigeru to come up to the left side of the door while he moved off to the right. He knocked on Maya's door and called out tot her.

"Lt. Ibuki? This is Forbes, you know, the Section 2 guy that..."

_**Blam!blam!blam!blam!blam!blam!blam!blam!**_

"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME, YOU BASTARD! YOU MURDERED SEMPAI!"

Shigeru and Forbes had dove for cover the moment the shooting started. Shigeru was cursing the air blue while Forbes looked ready to kill somebody, and Shigeru had a pretty good idea who. Shigeru started to ask just what the Hell they were going to do now, but gasped as he saw Forbes' shirt stained with his own blood – purple blood – several large holes punched through his chest by large caliber hollow point slugs. Forbes had started to carefully move toward the door as he spoke; he had expected Maya to react harshly, but to actually start shooting? He should have kept mind scanning!

He staggered backward and was just about to fall over the railing when Shigeru dove for him and grabbed his hand to yank him back toward the landing. Unfortunately, Forbes' weight and more shots proved Shigeru's undoing, one cliping his left knee, sending both men over the railing.

Thankfully for Shigeru, he wasn't hit anywhere vital and landed on Forbes who hit the stairs with a sickening thud. Unfortunately for Shigeru, they both flopped and careened down the steps, Shigeru's hand going for the rail, but when Forbes smacked into him from behind, his arm was snapped at the elbow with a horrible _**crack! **_Shigeru screamed in agony as he finally stopped falling and hit the bottom of the steps, other injuries added to his now uselessarm.

Forbes was perfectly still for a moment, but suddenly shot into a sitting position, snarled like an animal and rocketed to his feet, launching up the stairs again, taking them five at a time. As Shigeru struggled to get to his feet and go after the pissed-off Nephilim, he could swear he heard animal growling noises.

Forbes was in no mood for any more shinanigans.

Not in the slighest.

He got back to Maya's door, whipped his leg back, and promptly kicked the door right out of its frame, Maya screaming in fear and anger at Forbes' savage entry. She fired at him again. The heavy gun jumping around like a wild frog, but the shot were blocked by an AT-Field.

An AT-Field being generated by Forbes, his eyes glowing a murderous red.

Instead of normally walking toward Maya, he levitated off the floor and floated over to her, even while she continued to try to shoot him. When the gun ran out of ammo, she reared back and tried to hit him with it, but it bounced off his AT-Field, which he promptly dropped, whipping out his hand, snatching the gun out of a startled Maya's hand, crushed it like so much aluminum, and slapped her hard acrosss the face.

Maya was stunned, and in more ways than one. She staggered and fell over, slowly wiping a small trickle of blood off of her now swollen lip. She had heard that these super-people had abilities similar to the angels, but to be able to generate an AT-Field? As curious as she was, she was angrier still. She tried kicking him in the groin when she shakily got back to her feet, but he snapped his legs together like a vice, not only stopping her kick, but throwing her off balance as he twisted to one side, then whipped back the other way. He opened his legs and let go of Maya, sending her hard into the wall. She bounced off, back toward Forbes, who reared back his arm and clothes-lined her to the floor. He glared down at the now-unconscious girl and walked away, meaning to check on Shigeru.

He need not have bothered as he found Shigeru right behind him, hobling after him thanks to his damaged knee. Shigeru looked at Forbes, then at Maya, looked back at Forbes with a decidedly unfriendly look, and cold-cocked him right between his eyes with his working arm.

Forbes staggered a step back, shook his head, and in a rather surprisingly calm tone of voice asked this question: "Um, shouoldn't you be punching her?" He then pointed at the groaning Maya Ibuki.

"Goddammit, man! You could have just taken the gun away from her! You didn't have to hurt her!"

"Yeah, right!" Forbes suddenly snapped, "Jesus Christ, kid, you and me fell down those steps and you got yourself a busted arm and what else, I don't know. I'm amazed you managed to get back up here! I'm sorry, alright! I got pissed off, okay? She SHOT me! She almost killed you! Listen, I appreciate you trying to save me from fallin' over the rail, but I've got these crazy healing powers; I can handle wounds from HEAVY MACHINE GUN FIRE, never mind falling down a flight of stairs! You can't!"

Shigeru wasn't sure if he wanted to punch the man again or apologize for punching him and cussing on him. Both men decided to call it a day and make sure Maya was okay and clean her up. Shigery had made the off-color remake that the place smelled like somebody took a dump, and then realized that Maya had fallen into such a depressed state after losing Doctor Akagi that when she had come home, she had slumped against a wall and cried until she was empty, not even caring if her bladder lost control and she soiled herself; which is precisely what happened.

Shigeru hoped that Maya wouldn't wake up and start screaming "RAPE!" because Forbes and Shigeru had to strip her down to clean her properly after Forbes ran a hot bath for her.

Shigeru had always wanted to get Maya naked, but not like this certainly!

Forbes looked after Maya as he had calmly - yet sternly – stated, that he had bathed his own kids, and even his best friends kids, so he'd do it. Shigeru was actually glad, because with all the anger _at _Maya blended with concern _for_ Maya screaming through his system, he really didn't trust himself right now.

Ten minutes later, Shigeru was sorely wishing that he had been cleaning Maya, because he heard Maya screaming bloody murder from the bathroom, a crunch of cartiladge, some muffled swearing, a sound like ribs being hit with a good amount of force, but also a strange sound like fabric tearing. Or was that flesh tearing?

What really clinched it for him was a beastial roar so loud, it knocked him off his feet. When he got back to his feet, he hobbled to Maya's bathroom as fast as his damaged knee would allow...and froze.

Maya was as white as a sheet as she looked up at a fang-toothed, clawed, _winged _version of Forbes snarling down on her, naked in the bath tub. His head looked bizarre, too. It was like the sides of his head were pushing outward. Shigeru's attention was drawn by Forbes voice, which had taken on such an inhuman quality that it made the long-haired Nerv Bridge tech want to bolt.

"_**I'f you ever do anything like that to me again, I promise you I will..."**_

Forbes tilted his head back, making a humming noise, like he was thinking up what he'd do. The raven-winged man chuckles sent a wicked chill up and down Shigeru's spine when he finished his threat.

"_**I will strip down myself, hop into that bath tub with you, and do something very...ungentleman-like. For a start. Do I make myself very clear, little lady?"**_

Maya's only response was to nod rapidly.

"_**Now listen up! You hurt your colleage as well as me! He came over with me to try to help you, to talk to you, but your tried to put hot lead into both of us! My Mama always told me never hit a lady, but you are seriously testing me, girl. Now you didn't know he was here, but that's no excuse for going off like you did either which way!**_

"_**Now finish getting yourself cleaned up. There are people back at Nerv who are worried about you and keeping 'um waitin' is rude". **_

Forbes seemed to slump a bit after he finished talking, and even as he walked away, the wings that had somehow sprouted from his back were shrinking and folding back into his back through what looked like specially designed folds in the back of his coat. By the time he reached Maya's ruined door he looked normal. Well, normal for him. Unfortunately, the police had finally caught up to the two men, but after a lot of explaining, the police checking their identities and calling Nerv, the two men plus Maya were free to go, but on the condition they all come the police station later to explain what exactly went on here today. Afterward, they took shigeru's car and headed for Nerv headquarters, but were diverted to the exact same warehouse they had found the late Dr. Akagi via text messages on their cell phones.

Maya looked like she was going to be sick when she heard that.

"D-Do with have to go there right now?"

Maya was patching up Shigeru with a med-kit that had been stored in the back of the SUV. She had a guilty expression on her pretty face as ashe worked, and with good reason! Shigeru thought to himself. He was in no condition to drive injured as he was. Forbes had set and splinted his arm, which hurt like a sonovabitch, and Maya was tending to his injured knee. Thankfully no major ateries or veins had been hit and the joint was undamaged, so it was all soft tissue.

'Yay, for me', Shigeru thought bitterly as he watched Maya work. After hearing the orders to divert to the warehouse where they had found Dr. Akagi, Maya looked ready to either bolt out of the moving SUV or throw up; maybe both.

Forbes felt sorry for the girl, he really did, but orders were orders and besides, he kind of had an idea of what was going on. He decided to not comment, but simply said, "Orders are orders, sweety. We're almost there, anyhow".

"Oh. Okay. Um, Agent Forbes?" Forbes noticed from Maya's tone she seemed a fair bit hesitant, and he had a very clear idea as to why. He left out a heavy breath he had no idea he had been holding, composed himself and began to explain himself.

"Did you know that _everybody _who was exposed to Transcendance radiation has the power to transform? We can actually control the transformations, but for some reason or another Shinji, Dr. Carmine and especially Dr. Gannon can't control it. They each have to take dangerously high doses of specially designed meds to not only control the transformations, but to keep their brain chemistry stable. To illustrate what happens when you have that kind of problem, have a look at this".

Forbes pulled a photo out of his jacket pocket and handed it back to Shigeru who, after looking at the picture, sucked in a whole lot of breath and whispered harshly, "What the _fuck _is that thing?!"

"That _thing_", Forbes snarled back at him, "is Dr. Emil Gannon, you little twerp! You better watch yourself, boy, or I`m gonna come back there and beat your punk ass!`He`s stuck like that, maybe forever, but he`s a descent guy who`s been there for me ever since my wife ran off with our kids, and I WILL NOT tolerate him being disrespected, we clear?"

Maya all but jumped out of her skin at Forbes angry snarling, and Shigeru froze. "That's Dr. Gannon? How...?"

"I have no idea", Forbes replied, "I have never lost control of MY transformations except when I'm really angry. Maya can atest to that".

As Maya guiltily averted her eyes, she felt the SUV come to a complete stop. Forbes quickly put on the parking brake and said, "We're here".

Maya felt her stomach twist into knots, but she also realized that her Semapi was gone. It was just a warehouse. Just a warehouse where her beloved mentor died. The back door opened and Forbes held out a hand to Shigeru who tried to get out on his own, but not quite successful, so Forbes scooped him up and out of the SUV and gently placed him on the ground. Shigeru injured knee complained immediately, but he staggered through it, while Maya slowed inched out of the back seat, honestly debating if she could make a break for it, but she felt a presence behind he and turned to find Forbes watching her intently, a sombre expression on his strikingly handsome face.

"I can understand you wantin' to be somewhere other than here, darlin', but if you don't face this now, it will eat you up inside, and you'll just end up back where me and Lt. Aoba found you earlier. You owe your mentor more than that". Maya stared at Forbes for a second before her face took on a determined look, though not quite convincing, and said softly, "Alright, I'll try"

Forbes said through a genuine smile, "Well alright! Lets get to it".

After they got in the door, Maya came to a screeching halt as she observed the large LCL-filled glass chamber in the middle of the floor, a distinctly familiar female form floating within. Forbes and Shigeru were actually staring at what appeared to be Captain katsuragi having sex with the attractively transformed Shinji Ikari. Forbes and Shigeru were making comments but Maya's attention was completely drawn to the high-tech chamber, and realized who was floating inside it, smiling back at her with an oddly red, but warm and gentle gaze.

She felt like weeping as she fell to her knees, whispering, "Praise God, Praise God! You gave me my Sempai back!" He eyes drooped closed before she passed out, a joyous smile spread across her pretty face. Forbes quickly caught her and swore, then said, "After all the crap she put us through, _now _she decides to pass out?!"

Shigeru hauled off with his good arm and punched the Nephilim man right in the back of the head as he scooped Maya into his arms.

"OW! Hey! You want me to drop her or something?"

"What would it matter? YOU already clothes-lined her, smacked her around a bit, and tried to scare her to death. Whats a little drop, eh?"

If looks could kill, Forbes glare at Shigeru would have vaporized him and the wall behind him.

The two men had their attention drawn when a very naked Shinji Ikari, carrying an equally naked (and flushed) Misato Katsuragi or his shoulder walked past the two, but not before quickly fishing the SUV keys out of Forbes jacket, muttering a quick, "excuse me", and then walking out the door, gently placing Misato in the passenger seat, walknig around the to the driver side, getting in, starting the engine, releasing the parking brake, and hauling ass out of the parking lot like his life depended on it.

As the two men, now joined by a transformed Dr. Gannon watched the SUV tear away at break-neck speeds, Shigeru spoke up, a surprising amount of mischief in his voice.

"I dare anyone to report this to Commander Ikari!"

The nephilim man and whatever Dr. Gannon had turned into chuckled at what would happen when the Commander caught up to his errant son and Operations Director. Shigeru had jumped a bit when he caught sight of the transformed Scotsman, but after dealing with the weirdness today, he was surprisingly rather well braced.

"Well, lads", the monstrous Scotsman suddenly quipped, making Shigeru jump somewhat, "It's time for the REAL work to begin".

As the three walked back into the warehouse, Forbes still carrying Maya, Shigeru wondered to himself, 'the real work?'

Dr. Joseph Carmine smiled a nasty smile as technicians and mechanics operated the equipment that was being used to upgrade Unit-00. It had taken more than a week, but using a great deal of experimental hardware the he and Dr. Gannon had developed, they had completely emptied what had been termed the 'Eva Graveyard' for failed experimental prototypes, and converted the entire cavernous chamber into a massive surgical theatre, but on the scale of the Evangelions.

Unit-00 had its armor completely removed as technological upgrades were implemented, beginning with extensive hardware upgrades using what had been dubbed the "Morphix System", a nanotechnology-based molecular matrix composed of nano-scale robots which self-integrated into the molecular structure of inanimate materials, allowing for real-time and all but limitless metamorphic transformations. The Morphix System, which application to Unit-00's machine components was now complete, would allow the existing hardware components to absorb and assimilate all of the new hardware to be installed. A simple systems check was all that was required to make sure everything was going to work the way it was supposed to, plus a small-scale demonstration. Since Unit-01 had the _exact same _hardware upgrades, Carmine merely saw the systems check and demo as unnecessary, but officially required formalities.

The Magi-2 on-board computer was already installed, along with the ultra-compact cold-fusion reactor. When all of the hardware and firmware enahncements were complete, Carmine would begin the biological upgrades. While the biological enhancements were technically being accomplished by the adaptors integration processes which wove billions of nano-scale circuit and artificial machine muscle fibres into Unit-01's musculature and nervous system, He was going to install some systems that he was sure were going to get him in a great deal of trouble. Thanks to the skeletal armoring, all the new hardware had something more substantial to put roots down into.

After five more minutes, the hardware upgrades and installs would be complete.

Carmine had the nasty grin on his face because, earlier in the day, he realized just who, or should he say _what _the empowering soul of Unit-00 came from. His stomach had yet to stop doing angry flip-flops. He snickered in a mean sort of way as he psychically mocked the soul within, which was now powerless to stop any of the transformative work he and his crew were carrying out thanks to the locking plug inserted into the plug port at the base of Unit-00's neck, no matter how much it raged.

"_You can kick and scream and put up a fuss all you damn well want, but you ain't being set loose. Your getting' the damn boot up your narrow ass. I know who you are! Your were just a pawn, but you can't even get along with one of your own! We know what happened all those years ago, and me and my friends are puttin' the brakes on right now. We got a little somethin' to make the Eva work just fine without you, so say sayonara"._

"_**No! You cannot do this! I must have my revenge! He will ruin all!"**_

"_Yeah, I think I got it. See, there's too much at stake to just let you go bat-shit crazy all the time, and now we have a way to make sure it never happens again. You don't have to worry anymore. He's already been taken care of"._

The presence within Unit-00 was surprised at that, even curious. It was unsure of what the strange man had meant, but when it tried to look deeper within the man's mind, it was strangely rebuffed. The man chuckled to himself as he wagged a finger in front of the paralysed Evangelion prototype. He turned to the side as someone spoke to him, diverting his attention for the moment as one of his subordinates told him "the hardwrae installations were now complete and system checks were almost finished".

The prescence within Unit-00 didn't know that meant; well, not entirely. It knew the humans were installing new machine components into the Eva's body, but what confused it was what the strange man had meant by "gettin' the damn boot". Sudddenly there was a strange feeling that rose from within the Evangelion, a bizarre energy that at the same time was empowering...and deathly.

The prescence stasrted to panick as it felt its connection to Unit-00 begin to slip away. It clawed and thrashed at its prison of flesh, trying to make it move, to kill those that tried to kill it, but it was useless. The prescence detected another soul within, but how could that be?! It examined the soul and saw that it was newly born, only beginning to come into being. It lashed out at the new soul. It damaged it, but did not kill it. It tried again, but the new soul responded with a primal violence the Prescence was not expecting at all. It tore and snapped and raged at the original, more instinct than actual thought, but the Prescence soon realized that even though it was the more experienced combatant, the fledgling soul would win out. Something had now severed its connection to the Evangelion prototype. It was losing ground faster and faster as the fledgling soul began to focus its attacks, becoming more aggressive, but also more coherent and focused as well..

What disturbed the Prescence most of all was that the fledgling soul was laying down roots in Unit-00's core as its own were being violently uprooted. It felt a strange warmth as it looked, for the last time, through Unit-00's single eye upon the strange human, who it realized was helping the fledgling soul, teaching it, comforting it as it went. The Prescence realized that it could no longer fight, but instead of anger, or hate, it felt a great sadness. It HAD indeed cause great harm in trying to settle olds score with the betrayer, but now it could let go. It saw within the man's mind that old scores had indeed been settled, and now there was now real hope were before there was empty desperation.

"_**I am sorry. Forgive me".**_

"_Hey, you couldn't help it. You never really had any control of your own life; you were just a puppet, but your sister will have the opportunities in life that you were denied. I sorry too, for bein' so cruel"._

After years of loneliness and pain and hate, Rei 1 could finally let go. She apologized to the fledgling soul that now empowered Unit-00, its physical body twitching and jerking as it integrated its new owner. She wished she could take away its pain, saddened that her last act in this life was to cause even more pain.

As her essence wafted out of Unit-00 like a mist, she felt the fledgling soul near her, but now it was calm, maturing into something incredibly aggressive no thanks to her, but yet surprisingly gentle. It didn't blame her for attacking it, she could sense. It spoke to her simply, like the child it was, but with no trace of malice or anger Rei 1 thought it every right to feel. It only wished her happiness, and was genuinely sad she was going.

"_**BYE-BYE. BE GOOD, BE HAPPY...BIG SIS".**_

Rei 1 was so shocked she almost forgot her manners, as they were a big part of her upbringing originally. She realized this new soul, no, new _sibling _was strangely male in the structure of its soul. She didn't mind.

She had always wanted a brother.

"_**Sayonara, Ni-Chan. Live a long and happy life".**_

With a happy sound that only the new soul and Dr. Carmine could hear, a sound like a final breath being exhaled, Rei 1 vanished into the ether, finally at rest.

Rei Ayanami suddenly awoke, her good eye that was not covered over with bandages blinking several times as she slowly sat up in bed in Nerv's medical ward. She felt a strange, but very pleasant absence of pain. She felt, in fact, a great energy she had not felt before. What she also felt was a prescence right next to her.

There was a tall man sitting in folding chair next to her bed, reading what looked like an adult magazine. He had ghostly white skin, was surprisingly attractive with spiky jet black hair that had been messily swept back. He wore what one would call biker clothes and glanced over at her.

"Well, sleeping beauty finally wakes up? And I didn't even have to to kiss you. Damn".

Rei arched an eye-brow at the unusual man as he put down his magazine on the end table near her bed, turned to face her completely and chuckled as he extended his hand in the form of a greeting.

"Hello, Rei Ayanami. You picture doesn't do you an ounce of justice. I'm Shinji Ikari by the way. Nice to meet you!"

As Rei realized that this man had introduced himself as the Third Child, she just began to process his unusual greeting.

"What?"

**Author's Notes:**** Well everyone, I would first like to apologize for not getting this one out faster. Secondly, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I have enjoyed writing it for you. I'll see you again next time in "Fourth Period, Fourth Angel, Fourth Child". TTYL!**


	9. 4th Period, 4th Angel, 4th Child

**Disclaimer:**** Neon Genesis Evangelion is the property of Studio Gainax, its respective creators and so forth. Suing me would be a waste of your time and mine since I am dirt poor.**

**Author's Notes:**** Shinji begins attending Tokyo-3 First Municipal High-School after showing off rather sophisticated shape-shifting abilities and meets an angry young man known as Touji Suzahara (by the way, I just realized that I forgot to include how Ritsuko was rescued from Keel's ****_tender care_; I won't be giving anything away with my usual info dumps, so I hope you enjoy the mystery!)**

Shinji Ikari was standing just outside of the main gate to his new high-school, sunglasses firmly in place and long leather coat blowing in the gentle breeze. It had been a long week of preparing for something that, initially, seemed so mundane. That was where the fun was, though. Shinji had never had a normal life, and now he was going to do something that most young people his age dreaded of doing: He was going to school. Misato had driven him after he had settled his few things away at his apartment early that morning, far too energized to sleep.

He was still coming to terms with the fact that he was now living on his own, no adult supervision. He had actually entertained (very happily so) the thought of living with the purple-haired beauty. She had insisted that he room with her (as in share her apartment; he would have his own room), and had promised to keep things as far away from romantic as possible. Shinji had respectfully - and sadly – declined her invitation. Even if he had been sharing the same _building _with her, it was still too close. He couldn't bear the thought of losing control and hurting her.

He'd kill himself first.

As Shinji let that particular portion of melancholy fade into the background, He noticed that there were a lot of pretty girls giving him an appraising eye. One young lady licked her tongue across her pearly white teeth, a lascivious smile threatening to split her head in two. Shinji tilted down the sunglasses he wore enough to wink at her mischievously, greatly entertained by how she jumped when he gave her a good look at his unusual eyes. He pushed his sunglasses up his nose and calmly strode into the main building, kicking his heels at one point, and snickering like a loon.

After finding his assigned locker, he changed out of his biker boots into the school regulation sneakers provided and stored away his coat and book bag, grabbing the required books for his first class. He suddenly felt a great many eyes on him, and then came to a stark realization. Everybody was staring at him. He had tribal tattooing on his left arm, which was half-bare thanks to the short sleeve t-shirt. Everybody seemed rather nervous, and Shinji really was dumb-struck as the possible reason popped into his head; everyone thought he was with the Japanese mob!

Thankfully, he had a solution!

He became confrontational!

"Yeah, I have tattoo's! So?"

"Um?..."

Shinji noticed a pretty young thing with her hair done up in pig tails with her hand up. _'Well, at least somebody remembered their manners!'_

"Yes darling? And you are?"

"I'm Hikari Horaki, Representative for Class 2-A. A pleasure to meet you!" She bowed graciously, and seemed very genuine about that, as well Shinji was glad for the small piece of info since Class 2-A was his assigned homeroom, but when Hikari noticed Shinji's surprised expression, she got the hint.

"Oh, it's not your tattoo's that has everyone nervous, its, well...how really _pale _you are!"

Shinji felt like slapping himself when he realized he had forgotten to try adjust his pigmentation, or if that didn't work (Shinji wasn't quite willing to blindly let his new ability do all the work in case it decided to conk out on him), slap some make-up on. When he had met Rei Ayanami for the first time, he was surprised by how naturally pale she was; Well, he had reasoned, she is an albino! He, in his excitement, had forgot to put on some make-up to make himself at least have the proper skin color and tone. His ghostly white skin had already made him even more of a gossip topic than the enigmatic Ayanami, and he had just walked through the door!

"Damn, and me without my tanning lotion! I knew I should have caught more rays back in the States!" Shinji joked. He had meant for the joke to deflect from his condition. It worked. What surprised him was how well.

"DUDE!" A tall, lanky young man with not-quite regulation length blonde hair and a long sleeve shirt on called out. Shinji could see a hint of tropical sun shirt underneath the regulation top. "I went to America last year for my summer vacation! It rocked !" he wildly gestured with the 'rocker' hand-signs, "I got this cool tattoo there, so don't worry about your ink, bro!" He rolled up his right sleeve to show a curvaceous surfer girl with chestnut curls down to shoulders standing on a beach holding a surf board looking back over her shoulder as a high wave was coming in.

"Sweet ink!" Shinji exclaimed as the 'surfer kid' walked up to him and extended a hand. "The Name's Shinji Ikari, bro, what's yours?" Shinji responded. The surfer kid answered with a cheeky grin, "Kenji. Kenji Carmine Nakamura! At your service!" Shinji's smile vanished into an expression of slight surprise, but mostly confusion. Kenji answered with a laugh and said, "Yeah, odd name I know. My Uncle's family name is Carmine"

"By any chance", Shinji interjected, "Would your uncle's first name be Joseph? He was an American..."

"Army Ranger?!" Kenji squawked in surprise.

Kenji looked Shinji up and down, then suddenly exploded with laughter as he sprang forward and scooped the wildly surprised Shinji in a crushing bear hug. As Shinji flailed his arms and legs like a crazy person (because he was now absolutely sure he was being attacked by one), the mortified and angry Hikari Horaki was yelling at Kenji to drop the poor boy this instant. Kenji stopped his mad twirling and began looking around. Some students looked mortified themselves, some even scared, while others seemed resigned to Kenji's crazy behaviour, muttering something about "crazy Americans".

Kenji then looked at Shinji and carefully placed him back on the floor and back up a step or two, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

"Sorry", Kenji muttered "My uncle is this awesome dude, and, even as a little kid, my mom would tell me stories about all of the adventures my Uncle went on while he was in the military. A few years ago, I learned that my uncle had taken you in when you were just a little boy, 'cause your Dad up and left you when your Mom died. I thought, 'my super cool uncle is always lookin' after folks, even when their not family! That rocks'. I wish I could have met you sooner".

"This may sound kind of creepy", Kenji went on, "but I always wanted to have a little brother. I know, you were raised by Uncle Joe, so you'd be a cousin, but I always thought of you as my little brother".

Shinji had no idea what to say to that, but he smiled and clapped Kenji on the shoulder.

"Well, 'Big Brother', I think we ought to head to class or we'll be late!"

Kenji bear-hugged Shinji again, and now had the Class 2-A Rep smacking him rapidly with a paper fan across the back of the head.

The bell had sounded and the three realized they were all going to be late and took off like shots from a gun. They made all made it to class just under the wire; Hikari gracefully stopped by her desk and sat down carefully, Kenji leaped over _several _rows of desks and crashed into his, flipping it over onto him and the arm of the desk nailing him in the groin causing him to swear like a sailor and his classmates to wince in remorse - One classmate is reported to have grieved, "Oh my God! That poor lady!" - and Shinji skidded into his desk and flopped down into it, just as the bell signalling classes starting rang and their teacher walked in the door.

"RISE! BOW! SIT!" Hikari ordered the class as per ritual for greeting their sensei. The class was just about to sit back down when they all suddenly realized there was a clomping noise mixed with what sounded like a metallic tapping sound. They soon realized that the sounds were from their new sensei's footsteps. The class looked up as a whole and got a very good – and startling – first look at their new sensei.

He was weird to say the least.

He wore shiny black leather boots that _clomped _with each step, accentuated by the jingling of the spurs attached to them. Inky black dress pants and matching dress vest with a cream-colored dress shirt and string bow tie, a long leather trench coat much like Shinji's and a very wide brimmed black cowboy hat completed the ensemble. He _strode _to the board, picked up a piece of chalk and wrote his name in elegant English script and then again below in Japanese Kanji.

The Class of 2-A was now introduced to their new sensei, Joseph Michael Carmine.

Shinji's eyes all but exploded from their sockets when Dr. Carmine took off the cowboy hat, tossed it onto a near-by coat rack, followed by his long coat. He sat down on the edge of the desk, staring at each and everyone of the stunned students that made up Class 2-A with his huskie-like eyes, his almost ruby red hair just as exotic as his ghostly white skin.

"Howdy, Y'all! I'm your new sensei for this year. Joe Carmine is the name, I hail from America as my goof-ball nephew in back will attest", he cheerily greeted and the entire class turned as one toward said goof-ball who by the way was waving his arms like a marijuana-stoned moron, "and Mr. Ikari near the back can further verify".

All eyes were now on the unnaturally pale young man who had taken off his glasses to show he had eyes just like his sensei. He had a sinister smile on his face and was flashing the 'victory' sign. Dr. Carmine spoke again, "I used to be in the army..."

"THAT'S SO COOL!" Screamed out a freckled kid in the back with sandy hair and glasses. He had a camcorder out and was now mere inches from the startled Carmine who had jumped off the desk, tripped and fell square on his rump. To say he was mildly upset would have been like saying Adolf Hitler had been a somewhat mean person.

"When did you join the army? How old are you? Did you ever kill anybody? What kind of missions were you sent on? Who were your team mates? Did you travel to Middle East? What kinds of guns did you use?" Kensuke Aida spoke at motor-mouth pace, which further aggravated the furious American.

Carmine flipped to his feet, walked over to the window, opened it, checked down below and found an open dumpster half-full of garbage. He walked back to the boy, one Kensuke Aida, who was being shouted down by the class representative for his disrespectful behaviour, grabbed the kid by the scruff of his neck and pitched him out the window where he landed in the dumpster, squealing like a girl from departure to arrival.

After checking to make sure the boy alright he turned back to his shocked and shaken class and roared, his accent almost comically thick, "YOU WILL RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAE!"

Every single student in the class was stunned and shocked, their eyes bugging out of the sockets. Carmine checked on the Aida boy and was relieved to see him squirming around in the dumpster looking for both his glasses and his camcorder. He snickered as he said, "Nice landing, junior", before turning back to the classroom of horrified teenagers who most thought their new teacher was going to throw _them _out the window next.

"Oh, he's fine! The garbage broke his fall!"

Every single student face-vaulted.

"Now, where were we?" Carmine asked his now comatose students. "Kids?"

After Class 2-A's students woke up - and Kensuke climbed back in through the window (why he simply didn't use the stairs no one even dared to ask, and how, nobody even dared contemplate) – class properly got underway. Despite being a complete and utter psychopath, the students found that their new sensei could make even boring subjects fun, and subjects that were difficult or hard to grasp were made easy to understand because Carmine-Sensei could explain even the most convoluted and abstract concepts in terms everybody could get. He was a fun teacher to have, even if was a bit on the unstable side.

Kensuke had just met his new hero! He felt it was an honour to get thrown a window by an actual military man! (Yikes!)

Shinji had worried that Dr. Carmine had killed a classmate, and the Nephilim man had only been a teacher for a few minutes! Thankfully the rest of the class and the next several classes went by without too much craziness (though Shinji almost jumped out of his skin when Dr. Carmine dropped several subtle hints that the official cover story for Second Impact was a giant load of bullshit, and even proposed an easy at-home experiment as homework to test to see if a meteorite crashing into earth at near light speed would result in an event like Second Impact or something else!). Shinji had to try to talk to Dr. Carmine about blowing the official cover story! He, personally, couldn't have given a flying fuck, but _The Commander_ would flip his Amish-bearded lid!

Not to mention the realization that _giant aliens _blowing up Antarctica would unsettle more than a few people.

He was just about to raise his hand and question Dr. Carmine's theory in a way that made it sound like an actual question about the homework experiment, but the bell signalling the end of the period blared, and all the students began filing out. Shinji was clapped on the shoulder by Kenji who asked him if he wanted to hang out for a bit. Shinji decided why not, there was still time to talk to Dr. Carmine. Shinji noticed that Rei Ayanami had been present in class today; she was staring out the window as though lost in thought. Shinji noticed she still had her arm in a sling and one of her eyes covered in bandages. He sidled over to her, Ayanami turning toward him even though he had made no sound or greeting.

"Pilot Ikari?" Ayanami's voice was a ghostly soft whisper, which made Shinji smile like a devil because he thought it was incredibly sexy. His smile vanished in an instant though when he realized that each and every one of his classmates was now gawking at him. _'Aw, pud fucker!'_ Shinji swore mentally as Ayamani had unintentionally blown his cover as an Eva pilot. As questions, lewd propositions, and adoration were heaped upon him, he never noticed a tall, tanned young man wearing a track suit glaring daggers at him with utter contempt.

It was now fourth period and Shinji had a free period. Kenji was with him and they both had convinced Ayanami to join them; Shinji licked his lips at having such delicious company as the designated 'First Child' and couldn't wait to try to 'thaw' the schools so-called 'Ice Queen'. Meanwhile, a couple of girls from class were sneaking around behind him, trying to covertly follow him, but wearing stiletto heels (what in the _Hell?!_) and having long silky platinum blonde hair and vivid green eyes kind of made it hard to hide among a school of almost entirely Japanese students.

Not to mention they were terrible at it.

They were giggling away, sneaking glances and smouldering looks at him and Kenji. Kenji wasn't nearly as slow as Shinji had initially thought him, as he had noticed the girls even faster than Shinji did. He had been pretending obliviousness like a professional spy! Shinji and he chuckled when they both realized they both had the two girls pegged from the get-go, and neither had suspected the other of knowing. Shinji looked back over his shoulder and caught the girls with his eyes as they had (rather ineptly) tried to hide behind a tree, but had picked a tree far too thin to be of any use. They looked around and, as they realized they were caught out, demurely approached the two boys and actually curtsied. They both folded their hands in front of them and spoke simultaneously. What surprised Shinji – other than how gorgeous they were – was that they neither spoke English or Japanese; They spoke Greek!

"Παρακαλώ μας συγχωρήστε για την ακολουθία σας! Ήμαστε μόνο περίεργοι!"

Kenji looked at the twins girls askance and asked Shinji what they said. Shinji ignored the question and addressed both the girls.

"Το Hey, δεν ανησυχεί για το! Το Curiousity δεν είναι ένα κακό πράγμα, αλλά θα μπορούσατε να έχετε πει ακριβώς γεια. Εν πάση περιπτώσει, ποια είναι τα ονόματά σας;"

Shinji looked at Kenji quickly and said, "Their speaking Greek. Thankfully, I'm fluent".

He turned back to the girls who gave him their names.

The one on the left said, "Alexandra" and the one on the right said, "Ambrosia". Next they spoke together, but this time they spoke English when they bowed their heads and proudly said, "We're the Tatopoulos Sisters!" They spoke almost at a whisper though when they said next, "We are very sorry for snooping!"

Kenji spoke up in English before Shinji could and said, "Hey, no biggy!" Shinji had been surprised by Kenji's skill with English, but then considering that his uncle was American, it wasn't such a stretch. He was about to ask Kenji who taught him English when an angry voice yelled out, "HEY, NEW KID!"

Everybody all but jumped out of their skin, the yell was so loud. They all turned toward the source, which was the tall, glowering young man that Shinji had noticed out of the corner of his eye when he had first entered class. He was being trailed by the crazy kid with glasses and freckles that Dr. Carmine had thrown out the window, looking rather nervous, but surprisingly in good spirits otherwise, as he was excitedly panning his camcorder over the lovely Tatopoulos sisters. Kenji quickly went to Shinji's side and gave him a hushed but heated warning.

"Shinji, watch out , man! That dude is bad news! Name of Touji Suzuhara, one of the schools resident jocks; actually a nice guy, most days, but ever since his little sister got hurt in that big fight a couple weeks ago, he's been like a bull in a China shop. He's picked fights with guys in the higher grades, and WON EVERY SINGLE TIME! He's got a hair-trigger temper and skills to match. Watch it with this guy!"

Touji Suzuhara strode up to Shinji and Kenji, giving Kenji the sign to beat it, which he promptly did. Kenji had a feeling that Shinji would be just fine, since he was practically raised by his beloved uncle, but he was still worried. Touji was giving Shinji the evil eye and grabbed him by the front of his uniform shirt and hauled him forward until the two were eye to eye. Shinji smirked at the wanna-be bully, not trying to provoke him, but getting a reading on him. A quick look at the inside of Touji's mind showed him a deep love for his little sister, Mariko, and why he was so angry: the girl had been hurt when she had got away from her older brother; debris had fallen on top of her from when Shinji piloting Eva Unit-01 had been thrown into that office building that hadn't retracted into its bunker due to faulty hydraulics; it was a minor miracle she was still alive.

Shinji felt a great swell of sorrow for the guy, and also realized that, yet again, he had caused innocent people harm. If he hadn't been so angry and kept his focus, not to mention just listened to everybody's advice and pulled back for a minute, he could have attacked the Angel with an upgraded Eva that had _all _of its power core reactor shielding. He should have just done the job right and killed it quick instead of jerking around.

He was snapped out of his melancholy, however, by a fist colliding with his face, knocking him flat on his back. He shook his head and started to get up when a fist roughly closed on the hem of his shirt, hauled him to his feet and he was punched in the face again. The Tatopoulos Sister both shrieked in alarm and fright as Touji socked Shinji even harder on try number three. He thought about how Touji's little sister had been hurt, and how he'd react if a family member he cared about had been hurt like that, because some cocky punk didn't do his job right. Touji began yelling at him.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL, ASSHOLE? HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HURT PEOPLE, TO MAKE PEOPLE MISERABLE?! YOUR JUST AS BAD AS THOSE FUCKING SPACE MONSTERS! I WAS SUPPOSED TO LOOK AFTER MY LITTLE SISTER! THAT'S A BIG BROTHER'S DUTY, TO LOOK AFTER THOSE WHO COME AFTER! BECAUSE OF YOU...BECAUSE OF YOU...I SCREWED UP! MY LITTLE SISTER IS ALL BUSTED AND BROKEN BECAUSE...BECAUSE...!"

Touji started to hit him again.

As Shinji's thoughts swam and bounced about his mind as he took the beating, he realized something that had been staring him in the face, but his own melancholy had kept him from seeing it, something so innately simple and direct.

Shinji whipped out a foot and hooked it around Touji's jaw, throwing the surprised boy off of Shinji, who shot tot his feet, his face twisted into a portrait of anger, surprising his attacker. The boy then got both of Shinji's fists straight to the face, knocking out several teeth and actually _fracturing _his jaw, knocking him flat on his back. Shinji levelled so poignant a glare at the boy, the boy froze despite his spinning head and harshly aching face. Shinji snarled at him, and hoisted him up and snarled in his face, which was already beginning to swell.

"You have every right to hit me, to hate me, but get this through your block head, numb-nuts! Yeah, I messed up, but so did you! I should have done my job right, like I had been trained to do, and you should have been keeping a better eye to your little sister", the mentioning of which spurred Touji into attacking again, but this time Shinji got him in an arm lock and threatened to break Touji's arm if he didn't knock it off. "We both screwed up royally and now we're both beating ourselves up over our mistakes. Guess what, moron?! Put that rage into something useful! Aim it where it belongs! These things that are killing people? They started the mess, so try beating them up! You don't have an Eva? The big ass robot I drive? This whole school is one big recruitment centre for Eva pilots!"

That particular statement made everyone gathered go still as statues.

"Become an Eva pilot like me, and lets kill these things together! Lets stop this mess before it gets any worse! Before somebody else little sister or brother gets sent to the hospital, or worse!" As Shinji finished his tirade and let go of Suzuhara, who looked very much shocked and deflated, Shinji noticed Rei talking into her cell phone. She quickly hung up and pocketed her cell phone before saying, "An Angel has been detected. We need to report to headquarters".

Just before Shinji started to follow after Rei, he pulled something out of his pants pocket and tossed it to him. The Jock caught it one-handed and looked at it; it looked like a metal chalk holder, but with a clear panel on one side showing a bright blue fluid inside and a plunger switch at one end.

"It's a medical device", Shinji explained. "Press it against your jaw and press the switch; it'll hurt for a bit, but it'll fix you up good as new!" Shinji turned and began to jog after Rei, just as the Angel alarm klaxons began to wail. Shinji stopped for a moment as he hear the hiss of hypo-spray he gave Suzuhara. The young man was in quite a bit of pain, but he clamped his aching jaw tight and let out no more than pained grunts. Suzuhara and he locked eyes.

"You and me, sport? We'll finish this _later_", Shinji vowed with a growl as he took off after Rei again at a run.

Shinji had just finished putting on his plug suit and was now racing toward the Eva Unit-01's cage. He was going to do the job right this time and no fooling around. He'd follow orders and perform like the professional he was trained to be. He almost ran past the elevator to the cage, but skidded to a halt, grabbed the frame of the elevator door with his left hand and pulled himself inside, just as the doors closed behind him. He hit the button for the Eva cage and caught his breath; well, tried to catch it, since he ran all the way from school, all but smashed through the front gate check point, and ploughed over anyone unfortunate enough to be in the hallways when he flew through toward the locker room to get his plug suit.

He had no idea he could run like that! He had even scooped up Rei Ayanami and instead of the girls weight slowing him down (she was startlingly light, making Shinji idly wonder if the girl was eating right) and actually _picked up speed! _He only slowed down enough to pivot, gently deposit a stunned and shaken First Child onto a bench near the front gate, and then physically smashed through like it was wet tissue paper.

The one failure in his highly dramatic entrance was that Rei actually slide along the bench, hit a large open-top garbage bin, flipped over and flopped face first into festering trash. To say she was displeased would be like saying the Black Plague was a very bad disease. Rei slowly raised her head out the trash can, snarling like an animal, hissing like a cat, and one would begin to wonder if she was really human or not as her eyes were glowing a murderous crimson. Her potent fit went unnoticed as the lid of the trash receptacle (which had been thrown off when Rei hit it) came back down on top of her head and promptly knocked her out.

Shinji had managed to calm his breathing down to a rushed intake from his high-speed marathon asphyxiation. He was now leaning against the elevator rear wall and trying to get his head clear for the task at hand. While he was having some success with that, he still had this sense of dread since he entered headquarters. Something about this Angel attack was different from the first, and it hadn't even started yet! Shinji had a strange and unnerving sense of being watched; he knew about the hidden security cameras in the halls, the offices, labs, and elevators, but this was something else entirely. It was like someone..._or something_, was in the elevator with him.

Shinji had seen stealth suits make a person physically invisible, but there were always tells, though subtle. This was more like a ghostly presence rather then a physical person concealed through advanced technology. It was giving Shinji the creeps on a whole new order.

When the elevator came to a stop, he shot out the door the moment they had slid open enough to allow him to slip through. He raced toward the door to Cage-07 where Unit-01 was being kept; after much hard work and serious remodelling, it was completely overhauled so it could accommodate the incredibly transformed Unit-01. Shinji smiled as he whipped into the room and looked up at the bio-mechanical behemoth. The maintenance crew actually had to knock out an entire wall and deepen the floor to make it fit! Not so much because it was so much wider, but because of radical proportion changes and new external gear that force the work crews to completely rebuilt the locking and clamping mechanisms that held Unit-01 immobile.

As Shinji climbed onto the boarding platform, that paranoid sense of being watched seemed to sky-rocket and it was driving him crazy. He tried to zero in on it, but every time he came close, the feeling would abate, and now it seemed to be coming from everywhere all at once. He had a bad feeling that the angel was somehow probing Nerv headquarters psychically like he could, but if they could do that, why wait until now?

Shinji had no answer to that troubling question as he boarded the entry plug that was to be loaded into Unit-01. If Shinji had been looking at the door to the cage, he would have noticed a random Nerv technician sneering at him from the shadows, piercing red eyes glowing like torches. The man's uniform jacket was shredded and bloody on the front above his stomach area, revealing skin that looked like someone had taken a large blade to it repeatedly and when that skin healed, it left terrible, ugly scars of angry red that stood out against his milky white skin. The man was a little taller than average height and of a slim but well toned build, and with a beautiful face. He was leaning against the door jamb like he had nothing better to do. He walked away, casually ripping off the ruined uniform jacket and under shirt, glad that there were spares in 'his' locker in the changing room.

As he walked away, the man grumbled under his breathe, "You survived one fight boy, but lets see how well you face Shamshel. She's been looking forward to this!"

He stopped for a minute as he walked away, as dark purple liquid began to seep out of the wall. The liquid moved of its own accord, and had been placed in patches throughout the cage so pinpointing them would be problematic. Where one single patch would have been detected, many smaller patches were dispersed at random inside of the wall panels and electrical system. It had connected to each and every surveillance device in the hallways and elevators leading to the Eva cage and the cage itself.

As gallons of the indigo liquid left the walls through open seems, electrical sockets, and even lighting fixtures, it pooled just in front of the man and flowed toward him. The man felt no fear whatsoever as the liquid flowed up under the hem of his pants legs and _into _his legs. It took no more than a minute as the living fluid was absorbed, no, reabsorbed into its owner. The man had what he needed and was even now passing on that information to his 'associates'.

After retrieving a new shirt and uniform jacket, he resumed walking the halls. The man, who was in fact not a man at all, began to hum a merry tune and even kicked up his heels. He walked past a young female and glanced her way, finding her most pleasing to the eye. He stopped her and asked if she could show him around; it was his first day here at Nerv; not a lie, bold or subtle. The man he had absorbed had in fact just started at Nerv that day, but because of a train delay, the poor fellow had crossed paths with he who now wore his flesh. She seemed very concerned about what happened to his uniform, to which the man answered, "I got into an accident coming through the gates". Again, not a lie, just not the complete truth.

The young woman had no clue that the surprisingly pale but very good looking young man she had met wasn't even human at all; no instinctive warnings, no ques to give him away. She actually seemed quite smitten with him.

"_Ah, yes"_, Sachiel, once Third Angel and now a Human/Angel hybrid thought, "_life as a Lilum_ _was very good indeed!"_

The Command Center was just getting initial reports from observation posts that the Fourth Angel had arrived and was making it way toward Tokyo-3 from the sea. When images of the creature were transmitted to the Command Centers huge holographic screen, reactions were varied. While some people tried to keep things professional, others couldn't help but comment on the Angel's hideous appearance.

"Oh Yuck! The fucking thing looks like a giant dildo flying in reverse!" Captain Katsuragi's declaration made everyone on the bridge jump in disgusted alarm. Dr. Akagi thankfully kept things professional. "Please, Captain, try showing some decorum while on duty. We are professionals, aren't we?" Misato actually blew her old college friend the raspberry then turned back to the main screen. The Angel had the appearance of a monstrous, blood red flat worm, but with what looked like a bone mask similar to the Third Angels placed squarely between the two eye spots on its massive flattened head.

As the Command Center crew watched the Fourth Angel approach, the JSSDF began opening fire on the enemy from positions along the banks of the harbour, roads along the hillsides and from the air. They needn't have wasted the ammunition as the Angel's AT-Field deflected everything.

"Jeez, what a waste of ammo! Damn JSSDF jerks just want to blow their loads!" Misato snarked at the scene. "Wait a minute".

A very awkward and very still hush fell over the Command Center like a bomb. Every eye was turned to the now beat red Misato Katsuragi. Of all the people to comment about what she just said, no one expected the Commander to put his two cents in. "Captain Katsuragi", he began softly, "If work here at Nerv has become too trying for you, perhaps you could take up a writing position, perhaps? At one of those adult publications?" Every single person on the bridge fought back laughter as Misato babbled an apology to the Commander at the veiled threat.

"Hey, what's it doing now?" That was Lt. Aoba's question, which brought everyone back into focus. The Angel had stopped in mid-air, and was rearing back, like a huge snake getting ready to strike. As technicians and bridge crew began checking their displays, areas along the underside of the Angel bulged and swelled. Flesh seemed to stretch and harden, forming into nasty looking sharp points. The newly formed spikes weren't just a concern as they were something unexpected, but they seemed to have what looked like long transparent seems along their lengths.

"What are we dealing with here, people?" Captain Katsuragi enquired, wondering what this new trait would mean for the combat situation. As the image tightened on one of the newly grown spikes, Misato felt her skin begin to crawl as the image, as it continued to be enhanced and magnified, began to show hints that each spike was filled was a poisonous looking green fluid...and what looked like dozens, even hundreds of hideous faces staring out with bulging eyes which seemed to lock stares with her, like the things inside the spikes had suddenly detected her presence and looked at her as though recognizing her. She felt an involuntary shiver run up her spine.

"I so do not like the looks of those things! Any ideas? Anybody?"

Lt. Ibuki turned to her. "Ma'am! Those spikes seem to be hollow and filled with some kind of fluid that bears a striking similarity to LCL, but with a much higher PH level, like a very strong acid. Something else, though, is that the Angels own Blue pattern seemed to grow exponentially but also seemed to break down at the same time, if that makes any sense. Lt.'s Aoba and Hyuga have some very worrying results", and she turned to her two colleagues. Lt. Aoba went first, "Ma'am, the Blue pattern didn't break down, it _sub-divided_".

"What did you say?!" Dr. Akagi jumped into the conversation with a look of distinct worry on her pale face.

"It sub-divided Ma'am. We have no idea what this means; we're still crunching the numbers". Lt. Aoba seemed very reluctant to share his findings all of a sudden.

"Well, crunch faster, damn it! The Angel is practically right on top of us!" Captain Katsuragi yelled. Lt. Hyuga spoke up for his co-worker. "Ma'am...this is the first time we've ever seen the Angels do something like this! We have no idea what those spikes are! Are they some kind of close-range defence system, or just some new physical characteristic? I have no clue!"

A litany of cursing and swearing exploded from the speakers after Lt. Hyuga finished.

"How the fuck does a goddamn space alien suddenly grow big-ass spikes like that for Christ's sake?! Jesus, Mary and Joseph, since when in the name of our Saviour can they fucking do that kind of shit on their own?! Huh?!" Everybody turned their attention to the huge holographic monitor and stared at the Nephilim teenager sitting in the control chair of Unit-01's Entry Plug. He looked incredibly surprised, not to mention blatantly upset, even incredulous. He continued his rant. "First these things start shape-shifting and talking, and developing all kinds of other useful talents, but they needed Transcendence Radiation to do it! The reactor in Unit-01 has all of its shielding this time, so how did the Angel do that this time?! Damn it, I should have just pulled back when Captain Katsuragi and Dr. Gannon told me to the first time! Way to go, Shinji, you fucked up! You..."

"_**PILOT IKARI!"**_

Shinji, along with everyone else, all but hit the roof when Commander Ikari roared at the top of his lungs. After all eyes were on him, he quickly continued.

"Yes, Pilot, you made a mistake, but stop and think for a moment! Have you ever considered that perhaps, just perhaps mind you, that the Angels have _always _had such abilities? That they simply began to employ them because they _chose_ to? The timing was coincidental, yes, but have you ever stopped to consider what these things really are? They are beings from beyond our solar system. They can change and adapt themselves by actually becoming more intelligent, even choosing the form they will appear in. Being able to adapt their physical form to battle conditions is probably one of their basic abilities for all we know! We know next to nothing about their physiology, and we're still surprised when they pull something like this?! In the long run, it doesn't matter if they used Transcendence Radiation to alter themselves or not; what matters is only that we stop them here and now. Now, get your head on straight, calm down on straight and engage the enemy!"

Shinji smiled at his Father's simple advice and decided he was right. Even after swearing to focus on the problem, he kept inventing blame to heap upon himself. Even if these things could adapt themselves however way, they still had to be stopped, and right now Shinji Ikari was the only person who could. He should have followed the same advice he gave to Touji Suzuhara; speaking of whom, he wondered how the block-headed jock was doing, and hoped he wouldn't do anything too stupid.

Oh, how Shinji would have been shock to learn just how stupid his classmate had acted that day. He was going to find out, though.

Touji Suzuhara had never heard of a more brain-dead plan in his entire life! He and his friend Kensuke Aida – resident military otaku and outright whack-job – had somehow convinced the class representative to let hem go to the mens room, but they had an ulterior motive as Kensuke convince Touji to force open the window in the bathroom and crawl out, all so Kensuke could get better pictures and video of the fight with the Angel. After sneaking out of the shelter, they had made their way through the abandoned streets of Tokyo-3, eventually reaching the city limits and heading into the hills. They found themselves at the base of a hill in one of the local parks and decided to hunker down and wait for the anxiously awaited show.

So engrossed were they in the show to come that they never noticed two young women sneaking around behind them. These two girls had learned their lesson the first time and left their stiletto heels behind. Their sandal feet made barely a noise as they slowly crept toward the unsuspecting boys. Alexandra and Ambrosia Tatopoulos had spied the fool jock and his camera wielding friend sneaking out of the shelter and decided to follow them. Alexandra wanted to give that brutish twit a piece of her mind for bludgeoning Ikari while her sister consistently tried to dissuade her from such action.

"Sister, please, I beg of you, stop this at once! We are only going to get into trouble for sneaking out like we did, and it will seem all the more suspicious if we are discovered to be trailing after those two idiots!" Ambrosia begged her older sister, but her sister was unmoved by her sisters plea. Alexandra spoke softly but with firmness born of anger.

"Sister, how can you tell me to yield when that brutish cur attacked Ikari for something that was not his fault? Ikari tried to protect people he had never met, and that thuggish lummox beat him for faults that were his own, not Ikari's! I will not attempt to beat the fool, but oh how am I going to give him a piece of my mind!"

Alexandra would not be dissuaded at all.

She dropped any and all pretence of being stealthy and stormed toward the two unaware boys as they gawked at an enormous door that had initially been concealed by an entire section of mountain side roar open and the mighty Evangelion Unit-01 was lifted into view atop a massive hydraulic platform. Alexandra was taken back by the sheer size of the huge machine, dumb-struck at its incredible scale and wondered how something like that could even stand up straight and not fall over, never mind walk or fight giant aliens.

She was roused from her thoughts when a certain jock yelled at her.

"HEY! LITTLE MISS BLONDIE! WAKE THE FUCK UP AND GET YOUR NARROW PALE ASS OVER HERE! THE FUCKIN' FIGHT IS ABOUT TO START!"

Alexandra and Ambrosia both squealed in fright when Touji had started yelling, but now Alexandra was even angrier at him. She stomped up to the taller boy and slapped him hard across the cheek. She glared at him while Touji's expression was a potent mix of incredulity and anger. If looks could kill, there would be nothing left of Alexandra Tatapoulos to bury. He took slow, threatening steps toward the girl and snarled through clenched teeth, "Do that again. Just try it".

Alexandra would not be cowed. "You think you snarling and barking frighten me, fool? Think again. You treat people like garbage and then expect them not to respond? Wretch! You attacked Ikari for no reason other than you piled the blame for YOUR OWN stupidity onto him. Like he said, take responsibility for your actions and aim your anger where it belongs, you lummox!"

Touji only smirked. "I knew there was something up with you after me and Ikari got into it. You _like _him, like him, don't ya? Ya see somebody smackin' around your man, and you get all uppity. _Ha!_ I get it!"

Alexandra's face turned a brilliant scarlet at Touji's accusations and was about to retort when someone else spoke up. "Jeez, Louise! Will the two of you pipe down and shut up, how 'bout it? You'll give somebody a headache! Get it on, get it out of yer systems, and get hitched already! An old married couple is quieter than you two knobs!"

Kenji Nakamura walked out from behind a tree, wearing a long leather trench coat over his school uniform and shiny black cowboy boots with matching black hat. Touji quirked a brow at him while the younger of the Tatapoulos girls blushed like crazy. Kenji smiled warmly at Ambrosia while her sister glared daggers at him. She was about to tell the fool to mind his own business when Nakamura pointed toward the bay and simply said, "The show's about to start".

Shinji had powered up Unit-01, and armed all of its weapons. He was going to try to finish the fight quick by using the AT-Breaker missiles that Dr. Gannon had developed. He remembered how much damage they had done to the third angel and decided to instead of ending with a bang, he was going to _start_ with one. He already had a target lock on the incoming Angel and had opened the holographic display showing the entire weapons suite; a handful of seconds later, he had scrolled down to the weapon system of choice, selected it, and activated it and then raised his Eva's large gauntlet-armoured arms. He armed the launchers and turned off the safeties. He smirked as his finger began squeezing the trigger. "Boy are you in for a surprise!"

Suddenly, red alert screens started popping up, and what those screens alerted Shinji to made him squawk in denial. The alerts were something so innocuous but so scintillating poignant he thought a major artery in his brain had popped.

"_WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'OUT OF AMMUNITION'?! THE LAUNCHERS WERE LOADED BEFORE I WAS DEPLOYED! I WAS __**THERE, **__FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! DR. GANNON WAS THERE! DR. AKAGI WAS THERE! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!"_

Sachiel had never laughed before. He – quite literally – had had no sense of humour, or even the most basic concept of humour at all. One-liners, schtick, sarcasm, puns, riddles, gags, double entendre, all of it foreign and completely alien. Now that he was in human form, however...he was rolling on the floor laughing his hairy new head off at the young Eva pilots priceless reaction to finding out his weapon of choice was completely useless to him!

The secure communications tap he had set up had between a laptop he had purloined and the main external cameras allowed him to monitor the boys fight with Sahaquiel without anyone detecting it! He had also _unloaded _the AT-Breaker missiles after they had been loaded, manipulating computer records to hide his tampering. Technology could be so useful, if one knew how to apply it.

He laughed as the fools in the command center ran around like poultry that had been decapitated trying to figure out just what the hell had happened! Humour! How lucky these Lilim were! Not only did he now get the core concept of humour, he found it remarkably enjoyable to simply 'get it'.

Case in point: he had walked outside the base for some fresh air finding that the recycled air of Nerv headquarters left a stale, bland taste (or absence there of) on his new tongue. He had sat down on a bench near the front gate to rest for a moment when a strange smell hit his new nose. He scrunched up his face in disgust and turned to the trash receptacle. He heard what he had thought was moaning and looked inside, quite startled to see the half-angel girl Rei Ayanami unconscious in the trash. He blurted out, "talk about 'dumpster diving'!" and was surprised at his own silly joke but yet found it so humorous he roared with laughter, pirouetting like a ballerina, never noticing Rei lifting her head from the trash, a hand against her forehead.

"What happened? Why am I in the – _oof!_" Ayanami had began to ask, but Sachiel's fist collided with the back of her head, knocking her out yet again. Sachiel realized what he did and made a hasty exit, but not before putting his own 'signature' to Rei Ayanami's current misery.

He wondered just what kind of misery his dear sister was about to visit on the foolish child and his abomination weapon.

Shinji began frantically checking his other weapons to make sure they hadn't been tampered with, and soon found they were in proper working order. While he was quite pleased with that, he also realized that without the specialized AT-Breakers, this would end up a long, dragged-out fight. The only way his working weapons could punch through an AT-Field was if he either completely unloaded all of his solid projectile ammunition with the explosive yields set as high as they could go, overload each and every projectile energy weapons which could serious damage or even destroy said weapons, simply go postal with the entire weapons suite, or even less appealing would be to go hand to hand and try to breach the Angel's AT-Field the old fashioned way: _brute force and stupidity!_

After careful consideration of all available information and calmly deducing the most eloquent option, he decided on option 5: all of the above! He powered up each and every energy weapon he had, over-rid the safety protocols and powered them up well past their maximum tolerances, clicked off the safeties to all of his projectile weapons, and simply started shooting the moment the targeting computer locked on.

Phased high-speed proton beams hit the Angels AT-Field at near-light speeds, sending it flying backwards as its AT-Field was actually standing up to the barrage, but warping and flapping like the sail of an old galleon during a fierce storm at sea. Heat-seeking missiles and smart bombs pounded the Angel, depleted uranium cannon shells were fired at near-light-speed velocities from prototype rail guns, heavy machine gun rounds from full-auto anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns rapidly peppered the target. High-energy plasma beams and torrents of controlled fusion energy swiftly burned away at the AT-Field.

The Angel decided to try a different tactic from a direct attack, since doing so would simply land it in the same mess it had gotten itself into, and shot straight up into the sky, causing many of Unit-01's weapons to miss. The targeting system was quickly able to adapt, instantly ceasing fire and re-targeting, but not before the Angel did something unexpected yet again. It flipped completely over and launched the huge spikes it had grown earlier high into the air.

If the Angel had meant to distract him with that, it was an idiot, Shinji thought to himself. He kept his focus on the Angel and cursed and swore and roared as Unit-01's weapons relentlessly pounded at the Angels quickly weakening AT-Field.

Shinji never noticed the flesh of the Angels underside rippling and shifting around the S2 organ as it had when the Angel had grown those spikes before, just at the instant that the AT-Field spectacularly failed.

The Field shattered like glass and the Angel seemed to hang in mid-air momentarily before it exploded like a super nova, generating such perfectly intense white light that anyone would have been blinded by it. Shinji was not only glad for a surprisingly easy kill, but also that all of the buildings had retracted into their heavily armoured bunkers before the Angel had arrived. As the down-burst slammed into the mighty Evangelion, it braced itself for the coming impact by quickly crouching down and throwing its arms over its face. Even as it did this, billowing clouds of smoke and flame slammed into the ground with enough force to generate powerful sonic boom shock-waves that shattered and warped sturdy metal plating. Armoured plates were scorched and even partially melted by the intense heat of the flame generated by the explosion. A huge mushroom cloud rose from the harbour area and high into the sky.

Shinji felt his blood run cold as he realized something important, even with the roar of the explosion splitting his ears and shaking him like a toddlers rattle: that explosion was far too powerful for just the Angel being blown up. It should have been cleanly _vaporized_, not blown to hell with destructive force very nearing an old fashioned nuke or an N2 mine. The only explanation for the power of the blast was a self-destruct. Had the thing wanted to go kamikaze from the get-go? Did it _want _Shinji to kill it? If so, they why not stay on the ground to maximize damage, why the dodging act, and what was the purpose of those weird spikes?

Shinji was drawn from his internal musings when the proximity sensors went crazy and directed his attention up. He looked up and paled; those same huge spikes were now screaming back towards the ground, their deadly sharp tips seemingly aiming at him. He squawked in surprise as the huge organic projectiles began raining down, punching through concrete, asphalt, and reinforced armour plating concealed beneath the city streets like all of it was tissue paper. Most of the spikes had stopped about three-quarters their length into the streets, while some had hit thankfully emptied-beforehand buildings.

Unit-01 was crouched down as low as its joints would allow, its heavily armoured rump almost touching the road, its AT-Field deployed above it and its arms raised above its head. It now had mechanical shutters on the helmet to protect the eyes, which were now closed. One set of shutters opened slowly, as though Unit-01 was afraid to open its eyes, then the other set. It slowly turned its head from side to side, it AT-Field vanishing silently, then quickly stood up straight, looked behind it, around several buildings and turned back around. It repeated this actions several times and rapidly, like it was confused and beginning to panic. Well, that or having the worlds biggest fit.

Shinji's voice came through over the external speakers.

"Oh, come on now! Mother cock sucker! They all missed!"

Indeed they had, as the closest one to Unit-01 was a seven second walk from where the huge Evangelion was standing. He walked his Eva over to the spike and began prodding it with the toe of his Eva's boot. The spike seemed inert, but suddenly swelled and burst, torrents of a thick, sickly looking ooze swamping the streets. Shinji's Eva hopped away from the slime while wearing a shocked expression on its usually rigid face. It's shocked expression became even more pronounced when Shinji zoomed in on the hissing, bubbling contents; there were dozens, perhaps even hundreds of S2 cores within and each and everyone of them were moving on their own, as though they were swimming in the muck!

"Okay", Shinji hesitantly began, "That is absolutely not a good thing!"

"_Shinji!_", Misato's panicked voice came through the internal speakers like suddenly scraping ones nails on a chalk board, making Shinji jump and cover his ears. He was about to retort when she screamed, "_All those cores are_ _miniature Angels!_"

Sure enough, each and every core had generated huge globs of shapeless tissue that quickly took distinctly humanoid shape. The newly born "Mini-Angels" each had six arms and were coloured just like their parent, even the same markings. They had a single pair of legs and pronounced exo-skeletons, making look like they were wearing organic suits of armour. They had crests upon they heads that made them look like they were wearing miniature versions of the Fourth Angel as helmets with the "legs" wrapped around their jaws like straps, but with the forward pair of legs angled around surprisingly yellow snake-like eyes.

Each and every one of them roared like thunder and ran off with cheetah-like speed. Shinji was snapped out of his stupor and began firing his already over-taxed weapons at the legions of Angelic offspring, but only got a handful of them as the others either simply dove for cover or even teleported out of harms way. Several of them actually returned fire, buffeting Shinji's quickly redeployed AT-Field. He swore and snarled at the development, never realizing that one of the spikes had not opened, and had in fact burrowed itself deeper into the road. It had started generating a high-intensity phased plasma field that allowed it to quite literally swim through armour and bedrock alike by melting both with temperatures near that of main sequence stars, but using a powerful AT-Field kept it from igniting the atmosphere. It had one other unique ability; it could completely hide it own unique energy signature within the everyday background radiation of the planets EM field.

Nerv's detection equipment simply were not calibrated for such a thing. By the time the plasma field had reached optimum temperature, it quickly passed through Nerv's many layers of protective armour, bedrock, and anything else that got in the way. It immediately ceased generating the plasma field and simply floated down to the ground after breaching the armour, knowing that the detection system was being deceived by internal sabotage efforts.

Within the Chrysalis, for that was what it really was, Shamshel actually snickered to herself as one of her offspring had successfully teleported into Nerv's medical ward and retrieved the sample of DNA she had requested. She decided to instead of going through a sloppy stage-by-stage evolution like Sachiel had, she'd cheat a bit and use an existing genetic template to give herself a new form. All she had to do was absorb the sample and transform into a more 'appealing form'.

Shamshel and her kin had no concept of gender, nor did they need one initially, but since The Change occurred, they each began to think of themselves as male or female. It did not seem like such a big concern, but yet to each of them it was, as it help to give a measure of weight to their unique personalities. Even mighty Zeruel considered himself male even before The Change, and now that particular self-image was now reinforced.

As Shamshel thought about how such simple ideas could be so powerfully defining to an individual, her progeny thief had returned with the sample of DNA she had requested. It was a blood-bag with a bio-hazard label stuck on it. The progeny simply held it up to Shamshel's Chrysalis and it levitated upward. Long thin tendrils suddenly shot out of a bulge that had grown on the surface of the chrysalis and tore into the sample bag. Every last drop of blood was absorbed, which caused the tendrils to begin to glow with a soft blue light that quickly began intensifying. As the tendrils retracted, Shamshel began to audibly laugh.

At first her voice fluctuated between very high pitches, low baritones and piercing screeches, until it seemed to settle into a smoky, husky feminine chuckle. She dropped all pretences of stealth and allowed Nerv's Angel detection system to pick her up. The alarms in the Command Centre went ballistic, and when the bridge staff had a positive lock on the location, the term incredulous seemed wholly inadequate to describe their reactions.

"Christ on a cracker!" Shigeru screamed. "Where in the frosted fuck did that thing come from?! The Fourth Angel is _inside _Nerv headquarters!" His hands flew over his console, trying to get sensor analysis on just exactly what in the blue Hell was going on. Maya and Makoto were likewise engaged, and soon the three of them had fairly sussed out how the Fourth Angel had pulled off this little stunt, but that did little good as they had no idea how to repel it. Unit-01 was still topside trying to deal with the Fourth's progeny, but Misato told him to beat a retreat back to base and told him blatantly why.

"Misato, are you kidding?! The Fourth Angel is inside headquarters? Sonofabitch! These little freaks are a glorified diversion! I'm coming back!"

"Shinji, we've activated the city's new defence systems and they seem to be pinning down those 'things' the Angel birthed for the moment. They can manifest defensive AT-Fields but they have nowhere near the strength of their 'mother's' AT-Field. The few we've managed to hit were blown to bits! Don't worry about the Angels kids, worry about the Angel itself!" Shinji was particularly nonplussed to be sure, and he was becoming even more agitated as Shamshel's children began to focus on him again. What made the situation more aggravating again was that the offspring had somehow doubled in mass and had more powerful AT-Fields than a moment ago. Shinji ended up exhausting his physical ammunition and his energy weapons were boarder-lining on overload. Red warning indicator icons kept flashing on screen as the remaining arsenal began to overheat to the point the weaponry was glowing red hot.

Shinji was just about to turn and make a break for it when the ground began shaking. It started off as a mild tremor at first but soon escalated into a proper building wrecker of an earthquake. Roads began twisting and ripping, huge fissures tearing open and general hell was being raised. The ground was quaking so terribly that even the mighty Unit-01 had trouble keeping its footing. As it staggered and tumbled around trying to get a grip on something to steady itself, Shinji felt a great searing pain in the behind his eyes and an mocking feminine laugh bubble to the surface.

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

Shinji's scream echoed through Nerv Headquarters like an explosion in a confined space. He grabbed his head in agony and lost control of his Evangelion which promptly face-planted into the ground with a thunderous boom. Shinji was still in agony and very much conscious as though whatever was causing the pain was actually keeping him from passing out. He thought he was going to have an aneurysm, the pain was so intense. He kept trying to block out whatever it was that was attacking him, for that was what this was, an attack, but to no avail. As Shinji tried to concentrate through the pain, a huge section of the city's decaying downtown residential block suddenly began emanating a sharp electric blue glow. The bizarre light seemed to filter right through the roads, and now ribbons of said light were wafting up through like some spectral mist. It twisted and snapped, like a living thing trying to break free of confinement. Suddenly, the entire block exploded with a nova-intense flash of light which had now taken on a pinkish tint, making it seem a light purple now.

Shinji suddenly felt such an absence of pain that he almost passed out, it was such a blissful relief. His relief was very short lived as the owner of that terrible power rose through the column of power that had vaporized the residential block. The new arrival was not so new after all, as Shinji's on-board sensors began getting a clearer picture of the being as the column of energy swiftly began to dissipate. Soon, the energy pillar was gone, and as the stars in Shinji's eyes began to clear, he blinked several times as he checked the readings the new arrival was giving off and began wondering if he needed glasses.

His on-board sensors were telling him it was the Fourth Angel rising into the air. Not only that, that Angel had taken on a tremendously humanoid form. What was surprising about the Angel's new form was it was distinctly female; long, curvy legs ending in five-toed feet, a shapely behind, a curvy figure to match, human-like shoulders and arms ending in five fingered hands attached by normal-looking wrists. The differences – and they were blaring – was the deep magenta skin colouration, the long claws tipping the fingers and toes, the external ribs below its shoulders and what looked like a crown-like plate that resembled the Fourth Angel's initial form atop its head. It turned around in mid-air, allowing Shinji to see the rest of it.

He wished he hadn't; not because it was hideous, but because it was startling attractive for a giant extraterrestrial monster. A pair of gravity defying world-class breasts grew out of its chest, correct in placement if not normal proportion; it had a lean, trim figure with excellent muscle tone and a striking lovely face that would have been perfectly at home on a super model; high, elegantly sculpted cheek-bones, heart-shaped face, elegant jaw, straight nose, and full pouty lips that were an inky black, like it was wearing goth lipstick.

What bothered Shinji was just how..._familiar _the Fourth Angel's new face was. He just couldn't put his finger on it. Unit-01's head was turned to toward the transformed Angel and its eyes were just as wide as Shinji's. The imaging system seemed to develop a mind of its own and zoomed in on the Angel's remarkable bust. It jiggled as the Angel hopped up and down, like it was trying out its new legs.

"_I wouldn't mind trying out its new legs!" _Shinji lustfully thought to himself as he couldn't help but stare at the lovely giantess the Fourth Angel had meta-morphed into.

As Shinji forced Unit-01 into a sitting position against a heavily armoured bunker, the Angel stood straight up, struck a sexy pose and looked right into his Eva's eye's. The Fourth Angel actually winked at him and did a forward flip towards him. It stopped right at Unit-01's feet and actually knelt down. What reduced Shinji's brain to porridge was the Angel dropping to all fours, crawling toward Unit-01 and then straddling its lap...and then gyrating its shapely hips like it was giving him a lap dance.

"You know, Baby, all I'd need is bottle of beer and a few giant-sized twenty dollar bills and I'd have it made!"

"**PILOT IKARI! JUST WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU DOING?! ENGAGE THE TARGET!"**

Captain Katsuragi was perfectly livid at Shinji's overly flirtatious behaviour (not to mention feeling just a tad bit jealous...Shinji was her's after all!). Her indignant scream made everyone in the command centre hit the roof. Dr. Carmine began swearing at her and threatening to "spank her like a petulant child!". Commander Ikari and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki both chastised her angrily for screaming at such a high volume (Gendo fell out of his chair and Kozo tripped over him). Dr. Akagi had a wild-eyed look on her face as she stared at her old friend, her hand pressed to her heart to stave off an attack. The Bridge Bunnies simply glared at her (they had fallen out of their chairs too). Misato Sheepishly backed up and said, air palming to forestall any further anger, "Sorry! Got a bit carried away! Heh heh!"

Everybody face-vaulted.

Shinji couldn't believe what was going on, but he was drawn from his thoughts when he noticed that he no longer felt the Fourth Angel's weight. He noticed that it was now standing on top of a defence bunker, its arms spread wide, one leg in front of the other, standing on tip-toes. Shinji wondered how it could have moved so fast and how he had not noticed it until now. He got his Eva back to its feet and glared at the Angel on his display. He had exhausted his projectile weapons completely, and going for the weapons locker was risky, but he had no other choice as his energy weapons were in self-repair mode and were locked out until they were ready.

Shinji aimed Unit-01 toward a nearby weapons locked and took off in a sprint. The huge Evangelion slammed its feet into the ground with explosive force with every step, churning concrete and asphalt into a fine spray of dust and powder behind it. The Angel started firing high-speed proton particle shots at Shinji that were more penetrative than explosive, punching nearly perfect holes in buildings and bunkers as Unit-01 deftly dodged the shots, the on-board sensors warning of oncoming fire and predicting where the attacks were aimed.

Shinji was surprised that he didn't hear Misato or Dr. Akagi trying to yell advice or instructions in his ear at the moment, but right now, he really didn't need the distraction so he never paid it much attention. He continued running toward the weapons locker, somewhat mystified as the Fourth Angel hadn't moved a muscle since it started shooting; was it that confident that it believed it didn't have to physically pursue him or attack head-on? Shinji decided to think about it after he got to the weapons locker.

He just made it to the intersection and began approaching the weapons locker when the Fourth Angel suddenly swung around the locker from behind and slammed both its feet into Unit-01's chest, actually cracking its exterior armour and bruising a few ribs in the process; Shinji's ribs actually broke.

_Not again!_, He mentally swore at himself.

Unit-01 was launched backward by the force of the kick, but the Angel decided to give it a bit more momentum and fired a powerful high-speed proton particle beam from its core. The beam slammed into the purple Eva with super-luminal force, shattering the chest armour like glass and severely burning the flesh beneath. Shinji's agonized scream echoed in his ears, cut short as Unit-01 bounced and slammed off of buildings as it was literally sent flying out of town, leaving a trail of broken armour pieces behind it. The Angel decided then to add even more injury to insult as it shot out a glowing tentacle of pink energy from a glowing eye-like lens under its left wrist which wrapped around Unit-01's neck.

The tentacle stopped the Eva's flight, but if not for all of the skeletal and joint strengthening, its head would have been yanked off, but the synaptic feedback almost fatally separated the vertebrae in Shinji's neck. The only thing that stopped that from happening was Unit-01 getting its hands around the tentacle and hanging on for dear life. Being made of energy, though, the tentacles began to burn into the Evangelion's hand, despite the extra armour.

Shinji growled through the pain.

The Angel snapped around with a sound very much like a gun-shot and using the tentacle around the Eva's neck, literally sling-shot the huge bio-mech clear past the city limits.

The only thing that stopped it from smashing to a far adjacent hillside was the experimental flight engines built into the exo-shell.

The flight engines exploded to life and stopped Unit-01's momentum in an instant, but the sheer suddenness of the deceleration caused the Eva's arms and legs to be stretched back so forcefully, they would have been ripped from the sockets if not for the extensive amount of joint reinforcement that Doctors Gannon and Carmine had worked on.

Unfortunately, it still hurt like a sonofabitch! Shinji's limbs were also snapped backward by the synaptic feedback; they had fared less well than Unit-01's did. They had been savagely yanked right out of their sockets, Shinji screaming in agony yet again.

Shinji snarled through the pain as his plug suit began to shove his limbs back into their sockets. It did it using the built-in strength enhancement gear, lifting and aligning the limbs with the sockets so they could be reset properly. Each limb being reset came with an explosion of pain; Shinji almost passed out, stimulants or not. As his mind fought to stay awake, he registered a crackling in his ears. _Great_, He thought, _My hearings going too. Just fucking peachy!_

It wasn't his hearing going, as the volume of the crackling slowly increased, but also there was a distorted voice desperately trying to get Shinji's attention.

"_Shinji! Can...ear me? Can you...", _The voice kept cutting in and out, but Shinji knew Misato's sexy voice anywhere. He sent a mental command to the communications array to try to clean up the signal; the response he got made him sit up in shock, despite the injuries and pain. The signal was competing with another, more powerful signal. There were two points of interest that made this find so shocking; Firstly, the signal was coming from the Fourth Angel. The thing was jamming communications? Surprisingly smart, Shinji thought, but how would it know enough about the communications systems to jam them?

As interesting a question as that was, it was the second thing that made Shinji's blood run cold: The interfering signal had been attuned to his brainwaves! Suddenly a thought exploded in the young Ikari's mind and he was livid. First he mentally commanded the communications array to increase signal power well past the recommended maximum and had to override the safety protocols. Next, he ordered the computer to begin filtering out the competing signal from the Fourth Angel. He looked to the screen and magnified the image of the Fourth Angel. It looked as though it had stopped mid-stride and had a look of angry concentration on its lovely magenta face, as though...as though something had gone with its plan and it was trying to figure out how to fix it! But there was something else that made Shinji even angrier: the image of the Fourth Angel could still be seen atop the bunker that it had been perched on...and it seemed to partially fade in and out

Misato's voice now came through clear as she tried to communicate with his again. "Shinji! Are you alright?! What the Hell happened? You just started running away from the Angel and it ran after you! Didn't you see it running along the roof tops?!" _Apparently not_, Shinji grimaced, only now realizing the Angel's game. He looked back to where he had thought the Angel was perched. It was now gone.

Were Shinji's senses being distorted? Were his perceptions being manipulated, and if so, was he really looking at the Fourth Angel, or where the Angel wanted him to look?

"Misato, I think that thing has been messing with my head somehow. I thought the Angel was shooting at me, but it was some kind of illusion. The sounds, sights, the physical sensations were all real, or so I thought. Its not just visual hallucinations, there's auditory and even tactile illusions. I wouldn't be surprised if there were olfactory illusions too!" Shinji was in no mood for mind games, especially not when they seemed this real.

"God Damn it! No wonder! Shinji Dr. Akagi, Carmine and Gannon are all trying to develop counter-measures to this head-job the Fourth Angel has going, but don't worry", Misato smiled wickedly before she continued, "the automated defence systems will keep it off your back".

"But Misato", Shinji worriedly began, "the automated defence systems are pinning down the Fourth's offspring, aren't they?"

"Yes. The anti-personnel and anti-tank class weapons are pinning down the Angels kids". She giggled a bit at Shinji's annoyed look and continued, "I never said one word about the _heavy ordnance _now, did I?" The angry growl that rose from Shinji's throat sounded more like a giant jungle cats growl than that of an angry teenager. Misato mentally slapped herself and realized she could have been using the heavy ordinance to support Shinji when the Angel started its mind games, but with the shock of the damn thing spawning legions of offspring and somehow burrowing into headquarters itself, she completely let it slip!

The computer-controlled heavy weapons were mounted on heavily armoured concealed turrets that were situated atop elevation pillars that could retract into the ground or be raised high above the city's skyline. The weapons powered up and rose to firing height and targeted the Angel.

Shamshel was still standing in the road, trying to get back into the human boys mind so she could influence him again, but just when she was about to adapt to the strange interference that had developed a powerful force slammed into her left shoulder from behind, completely blowing off her left arm! An instant before the pain kicked in, a rational complaint roared through her head: _Where in the Hell did that come from?!_

The Fourth Angel got her answer as the rest of the heavy weapons began locking on and firing on her. She raised her AT-Field, but as she did missiles with familiar blue-green contrails came screaming at her. Shamshel had remembered those weapons as AT-Breakers, the weapons that had allowed the human child to best her brother, Sachiel. She dropped her AT-Field and simply ducked under the weapons as they flew at her, but that left her open to all the other ordinance.

Shinji had gotten his Eva into a sitting position when Misato loudly came back on-line. "Shinji, watch it, we've got civilians nearby! There right by Unit-01's left hand!" Shinji whipped his eyes eyes to the left and indeed saw a small group of teenagers near the Eva's enormous left hand. If he had moved just even slightly without knowing they were there, he could have killed them.

Misato had officially gotten herself off the 'naughty' list.

"Shinji, get them inside the entry plug! The defences will cover you!" Shinji nodded quickly at Misato's order and ejected the plug and opened the hatch. He saw the group and realized they were his new friends from school and those two bozo's Suzuhara and Aida. He yelled, "Get your asses up here or you'll be squished!" The assembled group did not need telling again as they scrambled up onto Unit-01's hand and then to a long rope ladder that had been spat out of an open panel just below the plug socket. As they each climbed in, they swore or squealed in indignation as they were immediately soaked by the LCL.

"Holy shit, we're gonna drown!" Suzuhara yelled as he tried to hold his breathe.

"Awwww! My camera's ruined!" Aida wailed as his beloved video camera became swamped.

"Your wretched camera will be the least of our worries, idiot! Shut up and let Ikari work!" Alexandria shrieked at Aida as her sister tried to get her to calm down. The only one not losing their cool was Kenji, who looked like he was having a blast.

Shinji sure as shit wasn't and gave them all a death glare that spoke very clearly: _shut the fuck up or I'll come back there!_

Back in Nerv HQ, Misato looked sideways at her old college friend and asked, "Hey, Rits?"

Ritsuko hated that nick-name – it made her sound like some kind of cracker! - but she ignored her impulse to suplex Misato and answered, "Yes, _Captain?_" She enunciated the word to hopefully get Misato back to using professional language. It failed spectacularly.

"I thought you'd kick up a stink at allowing civilians into the entry plug. So, why are you so cool about it?"

"_Oh, lass, that be a simple one"_, Dr. Gannon's voice spoke up from the console. He had been monitoring things from his private lab in Central Dogma. _"There's a wee gadget that Shinji has that'll allow him to filter out extraneous neurological impulses"._

Misato responded to the information with culture and sophistication: "Whaaah?"

Shigeru piped up as Dr. Akagi looked like she was going to cook one off of the back of Misato's head and made things surprisingly clear.

"All those extra people are creating what we call 'thought noise', so normally having more than one person in the plug would interfere with the pilots connection to their Evangelion. The filter device that Dr. Gannon mentioned will basically block out all of the thought noise so only Shinji's brainwaves are picked up by the Synchronization system".

"Oh. Well, why didn't you say so in first place, Ritsuko!" Misato had turned to her old friend with an exasperated expression then turned back to the main monitor.

The expression on Dr. Akagi's face was one that promised unholy vengeance upon the purple-haired Operations Director.

Shinji smiled as he booted up the Psi-Filter system and opened a small panel in his control chair in front of him. He pulled out a metal frame-work head set from which a handful of wires led to the control chairs inner workings and placed it on his head. It was designed so it could fit over and lock together with the neural clips Shinji wore in his hair. After it was firmly in placed and all connections locked, Shinji activated the device.

What should have happened was that the thought noise of all of the extra bodies in the plug would be filtered out by the head-set, while simultaneously Shinji's brainwaves would be amplified; this meant a partial release of the inhibitors that kept him from achieving a 400% sync ration. A risky move any day of the week, but a move Shinji desperately needed to take.

What _actually _happened was that Shinji received a powerful electrical shock that made him convulse like someone having a rather terrible seizure. Every muscle snapped to attention, his body going rigid with the voltage coursing through him. If it had been anyone else, they would have died. While the voltage didn't kill him, it left him twitching and boneless as he the current suddenly shut off and Shinji passed out hard.

"What the...what the fuck just happened?! Shinji? Hey, Shinji, you okay man?!" Kenji tried to rouse the unconscious pilot but with no luck. As the extra occupants tried to wake Shinji up, Suzuhara noticed that the Fourth Angel was now coming toward them with slow, languid steps, like it had all the time in the world. As Touji thought about it, he realized it was time to get off his ass and do something.

"Get 'im outta the chair! I'm drivin'!" Touji's shouted command made everyone freeze a moment, but Kenji and Kensuke swiftly complied, helping the unconscious Ikari out of the command chair – after finding the safety clamp release switch - and Touji quickly sliding in himself.

"Excuse me, but just what exactly are you doing, young man? You haven't been selected as an Eva pilot, Unit-01 isn't calibrated for you, and you have no training!" Misato angrily barked from the holographic screen to the left. Touji gave her the stick eye before firmly sitting back into the control chair and fiercely gripping the control yokes.

"Geez, Lady! Why is it that all the fine women have to be so damn bitchy too! Just reprogram this thing or whatever! Its not like we have another choice here! Our main guy is down, and I think if this thing had an auto-pilot whatever, you'd have turned it on by remote the second Ikari got zapped! Tell me how to drive this thing already!"

Misato had to do a quick ten count – and then repeat – before she even thought about responding. While she could see the boys point of view, she _really _didn't like his attitude! Bitchy?! Her?! Really?! That brat was going to hear it from her! That was, if they got out of this fiasco of a sortie alive.

Ritsuko gave her a look that asked, "Its your call" and Misato responded with a single head nod. She quickly relayed her instructions to the bridge staff. "Alright, since we are rather pressed for time here, initiate remote emergency recalibration of Unit-01! Dr. Gannon, implement whatever countermeasures you have developed to block the Fourth angel from tampering with the pilots mind immediately! Don't wait for my approval, just hit the damn switch when your countermeasures are ready!"

"_Aye, Captain Katsuragi!"_

"The Eva actually does have an auto-pilot feature, but we haven't tested the system yet, and I'm absolutely not having a repeat of the last 'system test', are we clear?" She looked to Dr. Gannon's alien visage displayed in the top left of the the huge holographic screen as he nodded to her. She nodded back and continued. "Switch the synch systems to a clean profile and compile one for, uhm...by the way, what's your name, kid?"

"Touji Suzuhara, Ma'am", was the clear reply.

"Compile a new synch profile for Touji Suzuhara and load! How's recalibration coming?"

"Ma'am! Emergency recalibration complete! Loading new synch profile now!" Lt. Aoba slammed his finger on the ENTER key was watched the screen as the new settings and synch profile were switched over.

In the Entry plug, Touji felt a greatly disorientating wash of sensation as his mind was being connected to the Evangelion and the Eva itself was connecting to its temporary pilot. Under normal circumstances, the empowering soul would have rejected the pilot and prevented the Eva and pilot from connecting in the first place, even going so far as to shut down the Eva.

This was by far not normal circumstances.

A new soul had been born within the Magi-2 on-board computer system which was connected to Unit-01's core through cybernetic implants, using samplings of Shinji's brainwave patterns, the life amplifying/restoring power of the Transcendence material used in the bio-neural circuitry of said computer, and even a tiny fragment of Shinji's own soul that had been copied by the computer using Transcendence energy and then assimilated into the energy patterns of the bio-neural circuitry itself.

This new soul possessed free-will, the ability to learn and adapt, and the potential to grow and evolve all on its own. It was, of course, also incredibly curious. It examined the mind of the boy who had connected to it and began to examine the depths of his inner psyche. It saw a surprisingly attentive and self-aware young man than people gave him credit for simply because of his outward behaviour and appearance. It saw that this young man had made some rash decisions in his life, which were further aggrieved by feelings of guilt and hurt. The new soul was saddened, even upset by the fact the new boy had attacked its vessel's primary pilot, but was greatly cheered by the fact that this boy was now trying to apologize through useful action. Anyone could say they were sorry, but to truly demonstrate that, you had to show it through action and behaviour.

The new soul connected to Touji Suzuhara with fervour and sub-consciously imparted to him all the training he would ever need. Touji, for his part felt like was more alive at that moment than he had his entire life, felt energized with strength and vigour, brimming with confidence and strange but welcome sense that he knew what he was doing. He was going to beat that over-grown alien bimbo into bright red goo!

The Nerv personnel overseeing Unit-01's temporary appropriation by one of Shinji's classmates were alerted by a computerized voice coming from the speakers of a significant development that would have lasting repercussions for the rest of the Angel War.

"**Attention! Attention! Fourth Child Identified! Subject: Touji Suzuhara now registered as Fourth Child. Generating Identification Profile And Updating Active Roster. Generating ID Codes And Security Clearances For Pilot Level. Roster Update...Complete. Identification Profile...Complete. Initiating Automated Plug Suit Manufacture...Awaiting Physical Statistics for Fourth Child".**

"Uhm, Ma'am?" A nervous Lt. Ibuki looked over at the Captain as she tried to garner her attention. She needn't have bothered, as Misato soon guessed what Maya was trying to tell her.

"Mother Mary! That twerp has a synch ratio of almost 200%!"

As the rest of the bridge staff tried to analyze just what in the hell was going on, Commander Ikari, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki and Doctors Carmine and Gannon were having a softly spoken discussion about recent developments.

"Well, this certainly throws the predictions of the scrolls completely out the window. Shinji's classmate has taken over control of Unit-01, and successfully I might add, the Fourth Angel turned into a giant Amazon, Shinji has been taken out of the picture, temporarily I hope, and the fourth child has been identified much earlier than the scrolls ever predicted. The Old Men must be pulling whats left of their hair out!" Fuyutsuki couldn't help but chuckle, but he did manage to keep it down. Gendo was unusually silent, resting back into his high-backed leather chair with his hands steepled in front of his face, a look of quiet curiosity as the two super geniuses conversed with each other rather animatedly.

"Sam Hill, Emil! The shit has not only hit the fan, it has busted through the fuckin' roof, pardner! We knew this kid had the gift, but we never knew he had it like this!"

Gannon could only smile as a thought bubbled to the surface. He knew about Keel's plan of Human Instrumentality, and even how his discoveries had changed those original plans, bu he wasn't sure yet about what the new iteration of the Instrumentality plans entailed, but that was okay. Gendo had his version of a controlled Third Impact, Seele had theirs.

Joseph Carmine had the intention of stopping every version of the murderous plan, but Emil was sure that Gendo had some serious good sense knocked into his head. If not, well...he learned a thing or two from Keel about dealing with _problems. Besides_, Emil thought, _I have MY version of Third Impact to implement._

As Unit-01 kicked to its feet, Touji felt like it was his body doing the work, not the giant mechanoid he was now piloting. He could feel the ground beneath the Eva's massive feet, he could feel a gentle breeze against the Eva's armour. He could even feel the Angel trying to get into his head. Misato had told him about how it had messed with Shinji and that realization made his blood boil! The bitch wouldn't even fight her opponents herself, but use her damn illusions to screw them up!

As Touji snarled in rage, the mouth restraints of Unit-01 snapped with a thunderous boom and the Eva snarled in rage as well, mimicking its new pilot. The mighty Eva took several tentative steps forward, and as Touji quickly got used to it, he sped up from a slow pace to a quick jog. He really didn't care that the Angel could mess with his mind; he was going to mess with its face!

Pilot and Eva roared as one as they charged the Angel, which now had a worried expression on its face as it realized that its psychic manipulation was being rebuffed, and not only that, it was like there were several minds at work, not just one. It didn't matter whatsoever; the pilot would die when Shamshel destroyed the ugly construct. She would be the one standing victorious, not some disgusting knock-off of Father. She dropped into a crouch and tore off toward the Evangelion, intent of bathing the hills in its tainted blood.

The battle was joined again.

**Author's Notes:**** Holy Shit! This chapter took much longer to finish than I originally thought! I'm just glad i could finally finish this thing and get it out to you all who have been patiently waiting for it. I'll be seeing everybody again in "End of the Fourth, Beginning of the Fifth". TTYL! **


	10. End of The 4th, Beginning of The 5Th

**Disclaimer:**** Neon Genesis Evangelion belongs to Studio Gainax and all affiliates and Hideki Anno. The only thing I own are the original characters and the situations presented herein.**

**Author's Notes:**** This chapter is going to be concluding the fight between Eva Unit-01 and the transformed Fourth Angel Shamshel. The title of the chapter clues in that Angel number five will be showing up, but there's a twist to its arrival that I hope everybody gets a kick out of! Now, unto "End of the Fourth, Arrival of The Fifth!"**

Touji Suzuhara was in a surprisingly good mood. No, it would be more accurate to say that he was in a_ great _mood. He had ducked a hay-maker aimed at Unit-01's head and a low snap kick that followed, both of which were so badly telegraphed, he saw them coming from a mile away. He had made the huge construct roll backwards and hop to a standing position, only to have the Fourth Angel snap a high kick from the her right leg at Unit-01's huge head, but he thankfully managed a block the kick with the Eva's right arm. Touji growled as he made the Eva force the leg away hard, sending the Angel into a slight spin just before he swung Unit-01's left leg as far back as it could suffer before delivering a thunderous – and rather comical and very literal – boot to the Angel's now humanoid ass. It flew through the air, bounced off the ground, hit one of the weapon buildings hard enough to snap it clean from its foundations, and finally skidded along the ground on its face before flopping to a halt, only to have the aforementioned weapons building crash-land on it.

The NERV staff – and any civilian lookie-lou's – cringed as the weapons building blew sky-high almost immediately after landing squarely on the Fourth Angel. A bright white particle beam pierced through the wreckage and flames and shot off into the afternoon sky. The Angel crawled out of the wreckage, its body a tapestry of injuries, from horrid burns to shattered bones and flesh torn and blown apart.

As Shamshel shakily tried to get to her feet, a broken leg and missing arm regenerating, she tried to shake out the overly loud musical group practising inside her skull. Unit-01 quickly jogged up to her during her moment of weakness and whipped its hand down and grabbed one of her slim ankles before whipping her off the ground and spinning the now thoroughly dizzy and hurting Angel around in circles like it was on some kind of crazed kids ride. Unit-01 came to a screeching halt and slammed the Angel into the ground as hard as it could, over and over again, the new pilot laughing like someone experiencing a psychotic episode.

"**YEE-HAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU LIKE THAT, BITCH?! YOU LIKE THAT?! THAT WAS FOR IKARI! AND THIS", **a powerful double handed slam into the ground, **"IS FOR MY LITTLE SISTER!"**

Touji ranted and roared, delivering savage double handed overhead smashes, shoulder checks, football tackles, boots to the mid-section when the Angel was down, straight forward slaps across the face, the occasional bout of comical spanking, and a wrestling suplex from the top of a weapons building. Touji's coup de grace made every single person watching the fight pale in _abject terror. _He hauled the Angel into a kneeling position and then proceeded to bludgeon its now ruined face...with Unit-01's groin!

No one watching the fight knew for certain if they were still observing a battle for humanity, a beyond over-the-top pay-per-view event...or the birth of a hyper-violent rapist. The Command staff had thought their new pilot had undergone some kind of intense and spontaneous psychological break, while the extra occupants of the Entry Plug had differing thoughts. Kensuke Aida was silently praising his jock friend for the remarkably imaginative use of the male anatomy as a weapon, while the Tatopoulos sisters had vividly differing ideas; Alexandra half expected the violent idiot to leap out of his chair and rape her and her sister while Ambrosia...well, she was _excited_, lets put it that way.

Touji honestly didn't care how people saw him after this little rampage, as long as he got to get some payback for his little sister and Ikari. He was going to make this over-grown space monster wish it had never been born!

He was going over how to finish it off in his head when he suddenly felt a painful tingling sensation right in the middle of his head. Warnings lights began flashing lurid red and the command centre staff went crazy.

"No, no, no! Not again!"

The three bridge bunnies instrumentation could now detect an Angel psychic intrusion into a pilots mind; the Fourth Angel was now trying to connect with Touji's mind. To the command staff's horror, it was more than that. This connection wasn't meant to confuse Touji, nor was it an outright attack; the Fourth Angel was trying to take control of him!

"The pilot's psychograph and a foreign pattern are beginning to overlay! His ego has begun to distort!"

"God _dammit!_" Misato cursed loudly as the well-progressing round 2 started to take a turn for the worse. As she began trying to think of a way to put a kibosh on the Angel's attack, Dr. Gannon came on-line, with a look of triumph on his distorted visage.

"Oh no, you don't, ye trollop! Activating psychic defensive array..._NOW!_" He slammed his hands on the keyboards of his workstation and streams upon streams of computer code and mathematical formula's began racing across the main viewer.

Touji's face was contorted in pain, he was snarling and growling as the Angel whipered sweet poison in his ear, trying to convince him to see things from her point of view. His race was dangerous, divided amongst themselves to such a degree, they were going to destroy themselves any way. All she wanted was to find her Father, whose voice her kin had detected within Nerv headquarters. When her kin had retrieved Him, mankind would be swiftly, painlessly, instantaneously swept away. Not one single person would realize their lives had ended, and all the souls of man would be gathered in one place, merged into a harmonious, glorious whole within her Father's being; there would be no more misunderstanding, no more misconception, no more hatred, no more fear, no more want or need.

Everyone would simply _BE._

As Touji felt himself honestly thinking about what the Angel had said, he felt himself suddenly free of the pain, but also being strangely drawn forward. Not pulled out of the control chair, or the Eva being pulled toward the Angel, but his mind was pulled toward the Angel's mind. He realized something else; while he no longer felt any kind of pain, he realized that the Angel was wailing in agony.

"_NNNNNNNYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! WHAT IS GOING ON?!"_

The Angel's voice, where once was deep and sultry, now has escalated into a piercing shriek. Touji hadn't really noticed because he was now inside the Angel's psyche, looking around at its vast and complex memories, and at one group of memories in particular. The memories were of either sitting, or lying down, in a deep stone pit, the rock glazed with ice and tufts of snow. Touji could see in the memory a huge crane slowly swinging out over the pit, and a wicked-looking blood red twin-forked lance suspended from the cranes lift cables. The lance was angled down.

The crane began swinging back the other way, toward the viewer of the memories, and Touji was shocked to realize that _these _memories did not belong to the Fourth Angel, but to something else, something so radically more powerful, there simply was no comparison. In those memories, Touji felt the presence of the Fourth, and a large group of others, all bound and obedient to what Touji dubbed the "Big Boss". The lance speed toward the Big Boss Angel, and he could just make out a shadowy figure in the cab of the crane pull on a lever. The lance was released and flew straight and true, skewering the Angel's Seed of Life, what the Nerv staff called the S2 organ. Adam awoke with rage and pain and fright, and in his rage and pain and fright and righteous indignation, has vaporized Antarctica and killed half the human race!

"Oh God", Touji mumbled to himself as Eva Unit-01 fell to one knee, "_We _started this war! Mankind! _WE did!_"

"Pilot Suzuhara, what the Hell are you talking about?!" Misato yelled at him. She really didn't like where he was going with this "We-did-it" garbage, but she wasn't about to let s new pilot begin throwing out wild theories and crazy ideas, not on her watch! Unfortunately, she wasn't about to get any support because Touji yelled right back at her.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, LADY! I AM IN THIS THINGS HEAD! ITS DAD'S MEMORIES ARE IN HERE TOO! ALL THESE THINGS ARE CONNECTED! LIKE THEY'RE ALL ON SOME CRAZY MAGIC WI-FI, I DON'T KNOW! THESE THINGS, THESE _PEOPLE _SAW A HUMAN KILL THEIR DAD, FOR CHRIST SAKE! THEY HAD NO IDEA THAT HUMANS WEREN'T CONNECTED IN THE SAME WAY AS THEM...THEY THINK WE'RE ALL IN ON IT!"

"I-I'm sorry? _What?!_" Misato couldn't believe what he just said, and all the other staff started to rapidly whisper about the implications whether imagined or not. Touji went on.

"The Angel's...they had a single leader, their parent, and he guided the rest through this mind link, whatever ya wanna call it. He called the shots for everybody, when and where things got done, what things got done, practically every single bit of their lives was like some kind of computer program that the First Angel wrote up and hit the 'enter' key to. Without him, they're all going nuts! They don't know how to operate on their own! Their trying to find their dad so he can fix them!

"He was found under the ice of what we used to call Antarctica. Somewhere along the line, somebody hopped into a crane and used it to drive a huge lance through its chest, through something these things know as the 'fruit of life', which I think is that weird red thing in the chest. Anyway, their pop woke up pissed off and freakin' out. He blew up, but not because he wanted to; without his core he couldn't control his own power which went completely ape-shit haywire. He couldn't regulate, evaporate, whatever the hell you call it, but he lost it and couldn't get it back. What happened next...well, everybody else knows what happened next, so I'm not gonna bother sayin' it".

Commander Ikari sat back in his chair as the new pilot finished relaying what he was experiencing. Ikari understood that the jig was, as they say, up if Suzuhara could identify him in the bizarre visions he was seeing. What he had not mentioned, and Ikari guessed it would only be a matter of time before he did, was whether or not he could clearly see who had been operating the crane. Now, even if he could accurately describe the Commander in these accessed memories, it wouldn't mean immediate ejection from his position, but it would cause a great many questions to arise that would not only arouse suspicion in his staff, but if word got out, the Seele Council would be alerted to a gross breach of secrecy.

No matter how circumspect the evidence may be, no matter how deniable, any breach of secrecy in regards to what _ really _kicked off Second Impact no matter how small would bring the wrath of the Old Men down upon not only Ikari's head, but the head of every single person who staffed NERV. There would be no distinction, no exceptions; everybody would suffer and suffer terribly. He decided to try a different tactic. He knew that getting rid of Suzuhara was no longer an option, since he was able to pilot an Evangelion without any kind of training. The answer was simple: bribery!

He already knew what he could offer the boy in turn for his future silence, but that offer was only valid if he lived through this confrontation. What everybody else had forgotten was that the Angel was still alive and now it was back on its feet, but what drew the Commander's attention was the rapt focus it was showing to Unit-01 along with a look of utter dumbfounded shock. It facial expression was surprisingly readable, and what the Commander was most shocked by was how open an expression it was.

It's expression could only be described as someone who had just experienced a life-changing epiphany and had no idea what to do with it.

Shamshel saw into her opponents mind and _reeled_. Her kin had believed that humanity as a whole had plotted against Father, and now they saw, each and every one of them, that in fact most of humanity were in the dark about the integral truths about what happened almost two decades ago. Through her adversary's mind she saw images of life, love of family, loss of a beloved parent, and many other things she had difficulty putting into context. She quickly realized though that perhaps she should try using a human context, but how did one change their point of view? The answer was surprisingly simple, but the execution of getting the answers was not going to be easy, and possibly very unpleasant.

She was just about to begin when a powerful presence appeared in her minds eye and slammed her to her knees. She had felt this power only once before, and that was long before this planet had animal life! Zereul, greatest of Father's children, her most powerful Brother, had awoken early and was addressing her. It was not Zereul himself that she feared, for how could one fear their own kin? She feared his rebuke, which she assuredly expected.

What she received was...different.

"_**ARE YOU WELL, SISTER?"**_

"**I-I am w-well, Brother. What wakens you now?" **

"_**THIS PLAN OF YOURS. ARE YOU CERTAIN?"**_

Shamshel was greatly surprised by Zereul's response, but also was she emboldened by it. If he did not reject it, then she could move forward, and do something unprecedented for her kind: create something _new_. Zereul's presence relaxed in her mind, but still was there great tension. He would allow Shamshel to proceed with her plan, as ludicrous as it seemed, but he was absolutely not comfortable with it. Shamshel felt a small release of tension in Zereul's powerful psyche, a metaphysical shrug of the shoulders and a small, calming sigh.

"**I am certain, Brother Zereul. I am certain".** Shamshel was perfectly confident that her plan would work. In structure, Her plan was laughably simple; the execution was what was going to be the death of her. Hopefully, not in the literal sense. She straightened her posture and began walking toward the mighty Evangelion Unit-01. She has a pensive look on her face and she had a right to be pensive. She was about to do something either incredibly brave or incredibly _stupid!_

She held her hands out, raised as though in surrender and slowly stepped toward the cybernetic behemoth. She knew that appearances could be deceiving, and her appearance right now probably had the human controlling the construct in front of her in a particularly paranoid state. He probably thought she was going to attack; while she realized that an assault was no longer a viable option, she had to at least fake it. She put out a psychic call to her children to break off their attacks and form up on her and strike her opponent. She also gave her children another set of instructions; tasks to perform on their way to her, and those minor tasks were, in a way, more important than her children's soon-to-be-attempted rescue.

As Touji kept trying to figure out what the Angel was trying to pull now, Unit-01 was hit from several directions at once by high-speed particle beams. He snarled as he felt the pain of the intense beams and looked around and say the multitude of little Angels bouncing around firing randomly at him. To say he was upset would be a gross understatement: pissed off like a _rabid dog_ would be more appropriate.

"Alright. That is so _fucking _it! I have had it with all this alien weirdness and shenanigans! You want to pull some kind of lame-ass back-stab you ginormous bitch?! Fine! Try this!" Touji had skimmed the weapons array list and found what he wanted. He knew that the AT-Breakers weren't loaded, but what Shinji's bosses had neglected to tell him was that there were reload stations placed around Tokyo-3. Touji had found one and had hooked up the equipment, and was now loading a full load of the fantastic ordnance into Unit-01's launchers!

Shamshel hadn't notice him doing it because at the time her face had been forcefully introduced to the Evangelion's...anatomy and smashed into the ground like a hammer. She was just about to command her offspring to double their assault when Unit-01 raised its arms and opened the panels covering the launchers. Shamshel would have smirked and made a comment about he boys intelligence, that the weapons had no ammunition, but those same launchers roared with fire as a barrage of AT-Breakers missiles fired from them! Shamshel squawked in surprised and leaped backwards firing particle beams at the missiles, her children doing the same. They intercepted all the missiles; all but one.

It flew over Shamshel's shoulder, startling her to end, and turned around and streaked back toward her before she even realized what had happened. She caught sight of the missile in the last instant, throwing up her AT-Field, completely forgetting these weapons destructive power was actually augmented by the AT-Field itself. It missile hit her field near the ground, smashing through it like a freight train would a pane of fine crystal, entirely obliterating her bottom half and sending what was left of her flying through the air back toward unit-01 which had reared back its huge left fist.

Shamshel's eyes widened as a very long blade shot out from above the hand, gleaming like a mirror. Just before she slammed into the mighty bio-mech, its blade equipped arm shot out like a rocket perfectly skewering her core like it was a piece of kabob meat, exploding out her back. Just before her core darkened and her head slumped forward in death, Shamshel had one last thought about her day.

"Well...that last part _sucked!_"

Evangelion Unit-01 lowered its arm and allowed the now dead Angel to slide off its arm blade and hit the group with a monstrous wet smack. It whipped its arm out to fling off the dark purple blood and retracted the weapon.

Inside the Entry plug, one Touji Suzuhara crossed his arms and smirked with obvious smugness, "Oh yes ladies!", he rumbled, "I'm just that damn good!"

"Got to say, chief, you did good!"

"Thanks Shinji, I..._Shinji?!_"

Indeed it had been Shinji, he was smiling and even patted Touji on the back like a proud Father congratulating his son. "Now", he began, "What do you say to picking up whats left of the bitch for NERV's egg-heads to study and get the hell back to base for some well deserved party time?"

Touji smiled a thousand-watt smile and replied, "Sir, Yessir!" He directed Unit-01 to bend down and pick up the Angels remains and carried under its arm like a duffel bag. As Unit-01 began to walk back toward Nerv headquarters, Ambrosia spoke up and asked, "Excuse me, but what about all the little ones?" That question put everybody on the defensive and Touji directed the Eva to look all around. When he caught sight of one of Shamshel's children, he zoomed in and was surprised. The thing looked like it was either choking or having an epileptic seizure. As he continued to watch, it seemed to rapidly swell then burst like a ripe fruit being smashed with a hammer.

"Well, that was just completely disgusting!" Touji looked for others, and each one he found died in the same horrid way. Touji had actually seen something like this before on an old american sci-fi show Kensuke had convinced him to watch. When the two main guys had killed this "mother" parasite creature, all of her babies died too, freeing everybody they had taken over.

He was just glad NERV wouldn't have to deal with the kid Angels. He felt kind of bad for them, though. Even though they were alien monsters, they had just been born and never really got a chance to be with their mom...kind of like him. As Touji put this sad train of thought to one side and directed the Eva to head back toward the base, He failed to notice several people walking out of an alley in a small group. They walked as though they were dazed or in a trance. Their shirts were also torn. As the Evangelion made its way back to base, the group turned as one and glared at the huge bio-mech with an almost palpable sense of malice directed toward it. Their fury-twisted faces were illuminated by a reddish glow that came from their chests, which quickly subsided.

They said as one, "you will pay", before each went their own way, bloody-red eyes changing back to whatever colour they were before today.

Dr. Akagi was elated with having such a near-pristine sample of Angel physiology to study. She had been wondering where to start when her young protege had noticed something that when she gave voice to it, unnerved the now half-angel woman quite a bit.

"Sempai!", Maya Ibuki had shrieked, "The Angel looks just like you!"

The canned coffee that Ritsuko had been sipping was spat up with such force, it now decorated the bulk-head of the opposite wall. As She sputtered and coughed, Ritsuko Akagi looked more closely at the Angel's face and indeed it did look a lot like her, the obvious physical differences aside. Maya handed her a handkerchief to wipe her mouth of the coffee, and Ritsuko was thinking that maybe bringing food into the examination bay was something that should be prohibited; for hygiene concerns of course, if nothing else.

She began to walk toward the exit and find a rest room where she could properly clean up, but the sound of sizzling flesh and a sickly rotten odour rose to halt her. The smell was so singularly foul, she staggered and threw up. She quickly forced herself to stop throwing up and fought her gag reflex was a passion. She looked to her giant magenta doppelganger and saw that the tissues were beginning to dissolve, some sections even spontaneously combusting. Workers and other personnel jumped and even ran away from the rapidly dissolving Angel corpse due to the huge amount of material that was rapidly spreading throughout the bay. No one wanted to find out if the now liquified Angel remains were corrosive or not. One young worker found out the hard way; she tripped in her own feet and fell face first on the floor when a surge of the sickening mess swamped over her feet and lower legs, which began to rapidly eat away her clothing and quickly started on her flesh.

The young womans terrified screams became screams of agony as her feet and legs began to dissolve into horrid red liquid.

"Quickly!" Dr. Akagi yelled at the other workers, "Get her out of their and throw a strong base on her legs to counteract the acid!" The slight hesitance from the workers drove her to scream "NOW GODDAMMIT! BEFORE SHE LOSES HER LEGS!" The other workers scrambled to get the young woman out of the burning muck and follow the doctors orders. The young woman was doused with a chemical that while being non-toxic to humans could lower pH levels to harmless levels instantly.

The damage had already been done.

Her shoes and socks were simply gone, and her feet had been mostly eaten to the bones, sizzling scraps of meat holding the bones together. An emergency medical team rushed in with a gurney and quickly carted the young woman away. Thankfully she had passed out from the pain. As the emergency medical team spirited the young woman to the NERV's medical facility, Dr. Akgai was alternately venting spleen at the workers for their slow action and making sure no one else wound up like the unfortunate woman. As she strode down the catwalk to the nearest elevator to deliver her report to the Commander, she couldn't shake from her mind that something wasn't right about what just happened. She looked back at the melting remains of the Fourth Angel and wondered why the remains just suddenly decided to break down into acidic goo.

As the numerous personnel moved to neutralize to acidity of the quickly decaying Angel corpse, they failed to notice a large lump of tissue slowly melting into the floor and disappear. It fell several meters before freezing in mid-air as if someone had pressed the pause the button on it. An Angel core, about the size of the human heart emerged from it and began to pulse with light. The formless mass of tissue suddenly took on a very distinct form. In seconds the mass had formed into a distinctly feminine humanoid torso. The legs grew faster than the arms and the headless body lightly touched down on the floor on its new feet. It flexed its new toes and began walking as though it had had its new legs all along and knew where it was going. When it arms finished growing, its laced the fingers of its new hands and popped them.

The head was quick to grow almost as fast as the legs; new eyes opened for the first time and a new mouth took its first breath and spat out a gummy mass of used stem-cells. Razor-sharp teeth and tongue grew in an instant. Distinct facial features formed swiftly, leaving a stunningly beautiful feminine face, her head crowned with a wide sweeping bony plate and ruby red hair growing from down to her magenta ankles. The core was now situated just below and between her breasts.

As She continued walking, the reborn Shamshel snickered under her breath. The Lilum were so easy to fool, it was priceless! But now was not the time for gloating. She broke into a hurried jog as she surveyed her new surroundings and recognized them as a maintenance corridor. She began examining signage on the wall to make sure she was heading in the right direction. She first of all needed to find a computer terminal. Her brother Sachiel had been very thorough in his explanation of Lilum technology; she had to giggle though. He was still having trouble understanding the seemingly impossible task of programming the device Lilum call a "VCR". She'd have to ask him about what a VCR was, but that could wait.

She had a plan in mind and now She had completed the hard part. Well, to be honest, She thought the whole 'faking-her-death' thing was the hard part. Since this was her very first time coming up with plans and strategies, she had no true idea of what the 'hard part' really was. She had formed a smaller secondary core from which her soul would reside after her old body was destroyed. It had been a surprisingly feat to accomplish, and She wondered why the rest of her kin had never thought of the idea before.

It didn't matter really.

The knowledge and ability to do so were now a part of the over-mind, so now all her kin possessed this knowledge and ability. If their prime core was destroyed, they could potentially grow another; as long as some preparation was made prior to the original core being destroyed in the first place. She had felt the stirrings of not only Ramiel, but of Gaghiel as well. Where Ramiel boasted that such knowledge, while potentially useful, would not be needed when he fully awoke, Gaghiel on the other hand...she had no idea what he had planned, but he was already putting the knowledge to use on his chosen form, in fact making _several cores_ in addition to his primary. He was, to use a Lilim phrase, "running with it".

She was anxious to see her brothers again, but Shamshel had to focus on the task at hand. She had seen many things within the mind of her opponent when she tried to attack his mind. She had learned many things as well. Whoever the murderer of Father was, they would soon pay for their impudence, but now instead of punishing an entire race for the sins of a few, the Angels could weed out the guilty party and exact a more precise vengeance. What they lacked to do so was information; who was the immediate assailant, was he the only one involved, and if not, who else was involved and who are _they?_

The Lilim summed it up nicely: Who, What, When, Why, and How. These are the things they needed to know but did not, so Shamshel had taken it upon herself to find those answers. With those answers she oped to create something her kin never would have considered had the Great Change not occurred: Another way.

As she continued to walk down the maintenance corridor she began to change again. Her skin color changed into a more pale pinkish hue that Lilim were known to possess. Her eye color remained unchanged but now only the iris' were red, not the entire eye. Her hair changed from a brilliant magenta to a pale gold, arching bangs over her forehead and the over-all length shortening to about neck length. The bone crest atop her head shrank and retreated beneath the skin of the crown of her head. She passed a reflective surface and stopped in her tracks as she took in her new appearance. She chuckled deeply as examined herself. She knew that not even the woman she was meant to replace would be able to tell them apart.

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi was in for quite the surprise when she got back to her office later that afternoon.

Ramiel had been waiting to talk to her Sister for some time, and now was an opportune moment. Ramiel, Angel of Thunder, reached out with her powerful mind and found her Sister, Shamshel walking through one of the Lilim Fortress' maintenance tunnels. Shamshel had just arrived at the exit hatch to the maintenance tunnel and was mentally scanning the main corridors of the NERV complex for anyone who would see her. Shamshel felt her sister's presence within her and while glad to feel it, she asked her sister to wait until she had made her way to her intended destination.

Ramiel was surprised, and somewhat disheartened, that her sister would not wish to speak with her, but respected Shamshel's request until the former could accomplish her immediate task of making her way through the NERV facility without raising suspicion or alarm. Shamshel used her considerable mental abilities to make the few passerby's think that all was well and that Ritsuko Akagi was fully clothed. Shamshel still did not understand the requirement of garment, but if She was to infiltrate and understand Lilim kind, then she had no choice to but to follow these strange social guidelines. Sachiel had commented that it was actually quite comfortable when one became accustomed to it.

It took her no more than fifteen minutes of walking the corridors and some elevator travel before Shamshel reached Dr. Akagi's office. She knew the passkey to open the electronic lock thanks to memories she gleaned from the woman whose DNA she had pilfered. Akagi's DNA allowed for a connection to be established between the two females across the psychic plane. While Akagi would one day discover this connection for what it was, she would only have a strange sense of displacement, like she was occupying two different points in space simultaneously, for the immediate future.

Shamshel slipped inside Akagi's office and carefully locked the door again. She exhaled a breath she hadn't known she was holding and slowly began to examine the office around her. The office was fastidiously tidy, not so much as a paper clip out of place. Being connected to the woman gave Shamshel an understanding of office supplies, computers, as so on. What she could not understand was the woman's odd fascination with felines. Yes, they were an attractive animal, but what purpose could be served by owning numerous 'knick-knack's' relating to the animals? Sachiel would now have describe Akagi as a "crazy cat lady", but from what Shamshel had learned, the term usually referred to elderly women who kept whole herds of the furry animals and were not quite right in the head. She had asked Sachiel about how the term applied, but he answered her with "I'd like to pet Akagi's kitty".

When Sachiel clarified what He had meant by that, Shamshel soon wished she had never asked the question in the first place. She shook her head in disgust and simply tried to put the crude comment out of her mind. She was just about to sit down at Akagi's desk when the door opened again. The real Doctor Ritsuko Akagi had just walked in, carrying a brief case in one hand, a cup of coffee in another, and her keys held tightly in her clenched teeth. She had pushed open the door with her foot and closed it the same way. She didn't even know someone else was in the room with her, she was so preoccupied. She had reports on Evangelion Unit-01's incredible transformation to complete and review, she had test results from the Fourth Angel's autopsy to analyze, as well as figure out how to save a young woman's legs from the result of the dunking in the acidic residue the Fourth Angel's corpse dissolved into.

She was just about to set down her coffee and brief case when a voice caught her attention. What grabbed her attention the most was just how familiar it was. She looked over and saw a woman who looked exactly like her sitting at her desk, as naked as the day she was born. The woman said, "Can I be of assistance to you, Sister?" She gracefully stood up and almost seemed to glide from around the desk. The keys slipped from Ritsuko's teeth, but the woman swiftly caught them and gently put them into Ritsuko's blouse pocket. "We must be careful, Sister! We shouldn't want to lose these, now, should we?" The woman mock-admonished.

Ritsuko was just about to open her mouth to either call for help or demand answers from the woman when the intruder suddenly seemed to liquify and proceeded to shoot right into Ritsuko Akagi's mouth and down her throat. As Ritsuko tried to scream, but could only make muffled gurgling noises, she realized she was a dead woman. As her vision began to darken, one last innocuous thought popped into her mind:

"_She sounded just like me!"_

Ramiel had detected her Sister's success, and was in quite the jubilant mood. Yet she was also melancholy. Her Sister had succeeded with the most integral part of her plan, but now...what did that mean? He Sister was now transformed into something new, something that while still her beloved sister was now something..._other._

Ramiel had indeed lost her treasured Sister, in one way, but yet her Sister still remained as she was, yet now truly and irrevocably changed. It was a most discomforting quandary that Ramiel distinctly did not enjoy the taste of. But, as the Lilim say, C'est La Vie: _that's life._ She began to understand that in real life, there is trial and misstep, frustration and misfortune, injury and aggravation. She had learned something truly spectacular, or so she thought. The bones of her lesson was this: as unfortunate as it sounded, the bad and the good went hand in hand; without the bad, the good would become less substantial, less fulfilling, eventually meaning nothing.

The bad reinforced the good and vice versa.

Two sides of the coin of life.

"_**How poetic, Sister. I think I like this 'poetry' the Lilim have. Such enjoyably fascinating concepts!"**_

Ramiel froze as her Brother, Zereul, made his presence known. She had been in the process of taking physical form, but for the 'where' and the 'what', there were distinct changes to the preordained schedule. She was originally to take the form of an octahedron. A geometric shape with eight sides. Now her form was...different to say the least.

Imaginative was most certainly another word for it, if not the most polite.

Her new form was like that of a huge insect; it vaguely reminded Zereul of Shamshel's chosen form. But with eight very long – and heavily armoured – walking legs and a pair of pincer arms, but the pincers themselves had more than one digit on the interior that made the pincers look like they had thumbs. The larger grasping digit was segmented and could curl completely in. The tail section extended into a very long and spike covered appendage that ended in three parallel blades like a trident. Ramiel's face though...very unusual.

It was basically a very stout saurian shaped cranium with heavy armouring atop the head which stretched down to cover the sides of the head like a Lilim helmet with tusks growing from what passed for her cheek bones. What was odd about Ramiel's head structure was that instead of a lower jaw, there were four sinisterly spiked mandibles and a set of tentacle-like tongue in her hideous mouth. Now what was really bizarre was that this same face was duplicated on Ramiel's shoulders, the middle of the her back, with just the top of the head emerging, and a rounded, teeth lined circular maw emerging from each of her knees, beady red eyes blinking from between the long curved fangs of the mouths.

There was something eminently _angry _about his form and Zereul didn't like it one bit. Not one bit at all.

The two were on the moon, Ramiel's physical form now complete, but Mighty Zereul was a shifting, undulating nebulous cloud of what looked like volatile gases and twinkling lights, with two huge red eyes emerging where his head might form. Right now they were narrowed in concern for his Sister. Ramiel hissed in anger, but not at Zereul, she wasn't suicidal. She hissed at the blue, scarred world below, so far away, but not really.

"I am Ramiel! I am the Thunder of God! You think you know thunders roar, little apes? _No. You. Do. Not_" She bit off each word as she enunciated it. Crackling red lighting suddenly lanced and slashed across her mirror-like carapace and focused in her pincers, in her mouth, and swirled around her tail blades. It formed huge swirling, rolling balls of Hellish red particle fire that seemed to throb and pulse like rapidly beating heart. Even Great Zereul was taken back a portion.

And not all for a good reason.

Ramiel thought a quote from a Lilim scripture would be appropriate: _"Behold! I looked and saw the Devil cast out of Heaven! And He fell..."_, She paused for a moment before exploding with power and rage, "_LIKE LI~~~~~~GHTN~~~~~~~ING!"_

The four energy blasts shot toward the Earth like shooting stars gone mad.

**Author's Notes:**** Well everybody! I finally have this done after much procrastination and writer's block! I hope you have enjoyed this chapter as much as I have writing it for you. Until next time when "God's Go Ape-Shit! Or...How I Learned To Channel Bad Drug Trips!" Later!**


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